Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump embraced sharing economy services during the presidential campaign—albeit in different ways—another example of how ride-hailing apps and home-sharing companies have hit the mainstream.
Hamilton Place Strategies, an analytical public affairs consulting firm, examined Federal Election Commission data for congressional and presidential candidates and discovered four peer-to-peer companies on campaign expense filings for the 2016 election cycle.
Hamilton Place Strategies conducted a similar study in 2014 and the results in the two reports show the growth of sharing economy services. In the 2014 election cycle, Uber was the only “sharing economy” company that appeared in those files.
Lyft, Airbnb, and HomeAway all appeared on FEC reports for the first time during the 2016 election period.
This election cycle, Uber rides increased and Lyft went from no presence in 2014 to providing 170 rides to congressional campaigns this cycle, the report says.
Here’s what the firm found:
Donald Trump’s campaign dipped its toe into ride-hailing services.
- The campaign spent $4,791 on Uber and $0 on Lyft.
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton’s campaign jumped into Uber.
- The Clinton campaign outspent Trump on Uber purchases by a factor of four with a tab of $17,011. Hamilton Place Strategies noted that this difference could be partly attributed to the size of the Clinton campaign staff, which was much larger than Trump’s.
- The campaign spent about $412 on Lyft.
Presidential and congressional campaigns spent more on hotels than on home-sharing
HPS analyzed hotel transactions reflecting room rentals only and discounted any items incorporating auxiliary travel purchases such as airfares and meals.
- About 99.3% of room rental spending by all presidential candidates went to hotels.
- Congressional campaigns used hotels more than 11,000 times versus using Airbnb or HomeAway 150 times.
- Together, the presidential and congressional candidates spent $264,000 on home-sharing services.
Trump’s campaign significantly outspent Clinton on home-sharing
- Trump’s campaign spent $22,660 on Airbnb and $19,036 on HomeAway.
- Clinton spent $1,218 using Airbnb and $0 on HomeAway.
The 2016 campaigns used ride-sharing more than taxis for rides under $100.
- Presidential candidates spent substantially more on Uber and Lyft, totaling over $100,000 for rides under $100. This amount was over three times the amount they spent on traditional car services.
- Some individual candidates, such as Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, spent more than $20,000 each on ride-sharing services.
