ATLANTA — Joe Gruters officially took over the Republican National Committee on Friday. And the longtime Trump ally from Florida made his goals clear: Help the president “100 percent” and assist Republicans in maintaining their edge in the House and Senate during the midterms.
The elevation of the GOP state senator who once chaired the Republican Party of Florida was never in doubt since Trump hand-picked him for the job. Gruters, who was approved by a unanimous voice vote, joins a long line of Floridians now on the national stage thanks to close Trump ties.
Gruters is taking over for Michael Whatley, who stepped down from the post to run for Senate in North Carolina.
Coming into the job, Gruters acknowledged he was in an enviable position given the successful fundraising efforts of Whatley that he said left the party with $84 million in the bank.
He vowed to remain “aggressive” in having the RNC use lawsuits to challenge voting laws it doesn’t agree with. Gruters supported Trump’s criticisms of vote-by-mail, even though he stopped short of supporting changes in his home state, where more than 1 million Republicans voted by mail in the last presidential election. He called Florida’s current way of conducting elections the “gold standard.”
And regarding the all-out redistricting battle going on between other states such as Texas and California, Gruters struck a defiant tone.
“So I’ll say this — we don’t need redistricting to hold to the majorities in the House or Senate,” Gruters said during an interview. “We’re going to win because the president is committed to winning. I think we have the right messaging. I think we have the right coalitions.”
Gruters, who said the White House supports him staying in the state Senate, steered clear of any talk of redistricting in Florida, where Republicans already enjoy a 20-8 edge.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has been pushing for mid-decade redistricting in response to recent court decisions upholding the state’s current map.
While there’s no exact timeline for when Florida may make changes, the Legislature is already scheduled to start its regular 2026 session in January. Florida law, however, prohibits redrawing districts for partisan gain.
“As a result, I’m not going to address any redistricting questions because I wear two hats and I’m trying to figure out what I’m allowed and what I can’t do,” Gruters said.
But Gruters said "I don't know" when asked whether the White House had asked Florida Republicans to move ahead on redistricting.
Gruters, 48, is an accountant who has spent nine years in the Florida Legislature, including the past seven in the state Senate. But his ties to Trump were forged when, as the head of the Sarasota County Republican Party, he honored him as “Statesman of the Year” before Trump won his first term as president. Gruters has also had a long-standing friendship with Susie Wiles, the Florida political operative who is now Trump’s chief of staff.
It was during Gruters' time as state chair from 2019 to 2023 that Florida saw its status shift from fading battleground state to firmly in GOP control. Republicans also amped up their voter registration efforts with a large push from DeSantis that resulted in Republicans overtaking Democrats.
Current RPOF Chair Evan Power said Gruters’ election as RNC chair “solidifies Florida status in the political world. Joe Gruters is a veteran of the Florida successes and can expand our model across the nation.”
Democrats blasted the choice of Gruters, putting out a statement that lambasted him as a "lackey" of Trump and noted his support for abortion restrictions and Trump's mass deportation efforts.
"Incoming RNC Chair Joe Gruters is just who Donald Trump would want for the position: a parrot for his own extremist agenda," said Deputy Rapid Response Director Jaelin O’Halloran.
While Gruters is a longtime ally of Trump, he's had notable clashes with DeSantis; he backed Trump over DeSantis when the governor mounted his unsuccessful run for president during the 2024 election cycle.
Gruters' move to RNC chair will defuse — possibly just for now — a proxy war between Trump and DeSantis. Gruters had been planning to run for chief financial officer — a statewide position and member of the Florida Cabinet — and had picked up Trump's endorsement. The post then came open after Jimmy Patronis stepped down early to run for Congress.
DeSantis, however, picked staunch ally state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia to fill the vacant post. The governor ripped into Gruters and said he had taken positions opposed by the conservative base, citing his support for an immigration bill that DeSantis vetoed and his 2018 vote on a bill that raised the age limit to buy a rifle in Florida. That bill was passed in the aftermath of the Parkland massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
“Joe Gruters has taken major positions that are totally contrary from what our voter base wants to do,” DeSantis said in July. “So if George Washington rose from the dead and came back and tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘Will you appoint Joe Gruters CFO?’ My response would be ‘no.’”
In an interview, Gruters tried to play down any potential animosity between himself and DeSantis. He said he had recently helped arrange DeSantis as the keynote speaker for an upcoming Michigan Republican Party event.
But when asked point blank about DeSantis’ comment, Gruters contended he would have won the job of CFO if he had primaried Ingoglia because he had the “golden ticket” of Trump’s endorsement.
“And I’m sure George Washington appreciates the fact that I’m going to be chairman of the party because we’re going to win, and we’re going to win big,” Gruters said.
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