Gruters CFO campaign bolstered by Trump advisors as DeSantis boosts his preferred choice
Joe Gruters, the state senator from Sarasota, has been running to be Florida's Chief Financial Officer for over a year, riding high with an endorsement from President Donald Trump, a reward for years of loyalty to the president.
Gov. Ron DeSantis gave his own reward for loyalty on July 16, announcing that he would appoint State Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, to fill the vacant CFO job, at a press conference in Tampa, outside Ingoglia's district.
But shortly before that announcement, Gruters' campaign sent a news release saying that top Trump political advisors Chris LaCivita and Tony Fabrizio were joining his campaign.
LaCivita is a former Marine who was awarded a Purple Heart in the the Gulf War. He's a long veteran of Republican political campaigns and is credited as one of the framers of the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" campaign against John Kerry in the 2004 Presidential Election, a series of brutal and deceptive advertisements attacking the then-senator's record as a Vietnam War veteran.
'The choice between a MAGA first patriot and a Never-Trumper is never really a choice,' La Civita said in a statement on Wednesday. "I've worked with Joe Gruters for years and can say that few have done more in Florida to advance the America First agenda. I fully support President Trump's endorsed candidate for CFO and will work to defeat any posers that stand in our way.'
Fabrizio has also been in Republican politics for decades; he was a strategist for Bob Dole's 1996 presidential campaign against Bill Clinton.
Gruters, a long-time Sarasota County GOP chairman, has been Sarasota County's state senator since 2018 and a state representative before that. After filing last year to run for Florida CFO he has raised over $348,000, according to the Florida Division of Elections.
A certified public accountant, the state senator runs a local firm called Robinson, Gruters, & Roberts, which serves many of the establishment Republican political campaigns in Sarasota County. He was also the chairman of the Florida Republican Party from 2019 to 2023.
Ingoglia not only supported DeSantis' failed 2024 presidential campaign, he was the fist Florida legislator to endorse the governor. DeSantis' challenge to Trump opened a wide rift between between the two, after Trump's backing boosted DeSantis' 2018 gubernatorial primary over then-Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam.
Gruters has also been endorsed by Sen. Rick Scott and U.S. Rep. Jimmy Patronis, who left his CFO seat to campaign for Congress, creating the vacancy DeSantis is filling with Ingoglia's appointment.
The race is something backstage version the the often open political conflict between Trump and DeSantis in Florida. The governor tried to take advantage of the president's briefly damaged status after the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 insurrection, but was ultimately shut down in 2024, when he earned just 1.6% of the popular vote from Republican primary voters.
The two played nice publicly last week when they came together over a common cause: detaining immigrants. During a tour of Alligator Alcatraz, the president told DeSantis "You'll always be my friend."
Christian Casale covers local government for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Email him at ccasale@gannett.com or christiancasale@protonmail.com
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Trump, DeSantis political conflict flares in Florida CFO race
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