Blaise Ingoglia Announces His Candidacy For Chief Financial Officer In 2026

By Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix

September 2, 2025

Recently appointed Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia announced Tuesday that he is running for a four-year term for the position in 2026.

“My name is Blaise Ingoglia. I speak four languages: English, profanity, sarcasm, and real s—,” the native New Yorker says in a campaign video released Tuesday morning. “I’m running for Chief Financial Officer because I am done watching taxpayers get screwed by governments gone wild.”

That anti-tax attitude has fueled Ingoglia’s biggest public initiative since being appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to replace Jimmy Patronis in July — leading a team of Florida DOGE auditors to scrutinize spending by city and county governments throughout the state.

Ingoglia has been a major player in Florida politics for over a decade. He was first elected to the Florida House in 2014, and the next year was elected to chair the Republican Party of Florida (he served in that position until 2019). He had served in the Florida Senate representing Hernando County since 2020 until DeSantis appointed him to the Cabinet position earlier this summer.

The chief financial officer of Florida is one of three Cabinet-level positions in state government, along with the attorney general and agriculture commissioner, and goes up for election every four years. Together, they help the governor administer a number of state agencies.

The CFO is the statutory head of the Department of Financial Services, which oversees more than a dozen state agencies, including the State Fire Marshal, Consumer Services, and Inspector General. The position pays $140,000 a year.

Ingoglia is the only major candidate to declare for the Florida CFO position so far. Until recently, he was the underdog in the race, with fellow Republican Joe Gruters — already endorsed by Donald Trump — crushing him in one political poll.

However, that challenge was averted after Trump picked Gruters to head the Republican National Committee, which happened late last month.

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