A view of the entrance to the Walt Disney World theme park in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, July 11, 2020.
Octavio Jones | Getty’s paintings
The Florida Chamber of Commerce has considered Disney an ally for more than a decade and helped push Republican Governor Ron DeSantis up the state’s political ladder.
While the governor and one of the state’s largest employers are at odds, the powerful business lobby group has taken no sides – a move that could threaten to damage relationships with one of Sunshine State’s key players.
The Chamber has deep ties to one of Florida’s largest employers. The group’s former chairman of the board was Anthony Connelly, who was once president of Disney’s Cruise Line. According to the Orlando Sentinel, Disney also donated over $400,000 during the 2010 election cycle to two house-run political committees.
chamber last month boasted Walt Disney World donated $100,000 to support STEM education in Florida. Highlighted Rena Langley, executive director at huge amusement park in florida and longtime board member.
The House also tried to stay on the good side of DeSantis, who largely promoted policies that were supported by companies, but nevertheless waged a long-running battle against one of Florida’s biggest economic engines. The group and many of its board members also endorsed the governor’s campaigns, according to campaign financial records and statements reviewed by CNBC.
But as Disney and DeSantis engage in an increasingly vicious fight, the state house has neither defended nor criticized either side. The business lobby group has not yet addressed the dispute on its website.
David Jolly, who represented Florida’s 13th congressional district as a Republican member of Congress, told CNBC that the state chamber is one of the business groups allied with DeSantis and Disney, which puts the lobbying organization in a difficult position.
“The entire business and lobbying class are allies of both DeSantis and Disney,” said Jolly, who is now an MSNBC political analyst and has left the GOP. “The political division of the house is arguably the state GOP’s main ally in driving polls and research into low-dollar seats in the House of Representatives, as well as mobilizing soft dollars around state legislative races.”
The Florida Chamber of Commerce declined to comment. A Disney spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The House does not take a position on the Anti-Disney Act
The fight started last year when Disney has spoken out against a Florida bill restricting classroom discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity, dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” by critics. Soon after, the governor and his allies targeted a special tax district that, since the 1960s, has allowed Disney to essentially run its Florida operations on its own.
Disney recently filed a lawsuit against DeSantis, alleging that the Republican led a “relentless campaign to use government power as a weapon.” The board of directors chosen by DeSantis to oversee Disney’s operations voted Monday to sue Disney in response to the company’s litigation.
The feud spilled over into the 2024 Republican presidential primaries as DeSantis considered running for the White House. Former President Donald Trump, who called DeSantis’ fight with Disney a “political feat,” plans to use a similar attack on the Florida governor if he enters the race, according to a person close to Trump who declined to be named in order to freely speak about campaign strategy.
“Trump is planning to say, ‘Ron can’t even beat Mickey Mouse in his own backyard, how can he take on China? How can he deal with Russia,” a close adviser to the former president told CNBC.
A Trump campaign spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
As the state’s legislative session closes on Friday, Republicans have endorsed multiple pieces of legislation targeting Disney. State legislative records show that the chamber did not officially lobby for any of the bills that followed Disney, including HB 9B. The act, signed by the governor earlier this year, aimed terminate the status of a local government company.
Republican state representative Fred Hawkins, who introduced HB 9B, told CNBC that he heard the most questions from the state chamber from leaders and group members, “just asking what’s in the bill and when it’s going to be tabled.”
Data shows the Florida Chamber of Commerce has good reason not to engage in a bitter dispute, despite its historic alliance with Disney.
The state house made significant contributions to the pro-DeSantis Friends of Ron DeSantis political action committee. Since DeSantis’s successful run for governor in 2018, the Florida Chamber of Commerce has contributed $345,000 to the group, according to state campaign finance records.
Nearly half of these donations were made during the 2022 election cycle. state chamber letters DeSantis’ decisive victory over Democrat Charlie Crist as one of dozens of victories for the lobbying group in Florida during the last election cycle.
The State House Board is also littered with DeSantis allies, some of whom were DeSantis campaign financiers or nominees for state board positions.
Charles Lydecker, CEO of insurance company Foundation Risk Partners, has been a board member of the Florida Chamber since 2020, according to the tax form filed by the group. These forms are the organization’s most recent publicly available tax documents.
Lydecker donated $135,000 to pro-DeSantis PAC since 2018. In 2019, DeSantis appointed him to the Board of Governors of the state university system. Lydecker, listed as a member of the chamber’s board of directors on the university system’s website, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Robert Grammig Jr., an attorney and partner at Holland & Knight, has worked with the state house for years to support DeSantis’s gubernatorial campaigns. His Holland & Knight profile says he was chairman of the Florida Chamber of Commerce until 2019 and currently serves as chairman of the lobbying group’s International Business Council.
Florida State’s campaign financial records show that he has repeatedly donated to two of DeSantis’s candidacies for governor, including $50,000 in 2022 to Friends of Ron DeSantis PAC. Grammig did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
H. Wayne Huizenga Jr., a businessman and son of the late billionaire H. Wayne Huizenga, was also listed as a member of the state house board on 2020 forms. DeSantis announced in 2020, he appointed Huizenga Jr. to the governing council of the state university system.
According to records, the businessman donated at least $150,000 to Friends of Ron DeSantis PAC during the 2022 election cycle.
It is unclear whether Huizeng Jr. he is still a member of the state house board. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.