Calling Himself ‘Unapologetically Conservative,' Blaise Ingoglia Kicks Off His Campaign For CFO

By Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix

September 23, 2025

TAMPA — Blaise Ingoglia, appointed to serve as Florida’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in July, held a campaign event in Tampa on Monday night to kick off his candidacy for 2026.

“My name is Blaise Ingoglia and I’m your current CFO from the great state of Florida and I am unapologetically conservative,” he said to several hundred people who crowded into the second floor of the Tampa Firefighters Museum.

Ingoglia, a homebuilder from Hernando County, was serving in the Florida Senate when Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed him to succeed Jimmy Patronis as CFO on July 21. He announced that he was running for a four-year term on Sept. 2, but that was a via a video release and written statement. On Monday night, his campaign opted for a splashy event, replete with food, alcohol, and a steady stream of ’70s and ’80s pop tunes playing to the attendees in advance of his speech.

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 agencies, including the State Fire Marshal, Consumer Services, and Inspector General. The position pays $140,000 a year.

Ingoglia has been in the news headlines constantly since his appointment by DeSantis earlier this summer. The two Republicans have been on an unofficial campaign to boost a still-to-written constitutional amendment next year that will ask voters whether they want to substantially reduce their property taxes.

Ingoglia has utilized two new state government agencies in that effort: DOGE (“Department of Governmental Efficiency”) and FAFO (the Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight) to scrutinize spending by local governments throughout the state. That’s been controversial, as Ingoglia has accused several local governments — many (but not all) controlled by Democrats — of excessive and “wasteful” spending.

That strategy was called out in an editorial in the Orlando Sentinel over the weekend.

“The motives are painfully obvious: State leaders are trying to amass proof that local governments are routinely overspending on ridiculous priorities,” says the editorial. “The next step, obviously, is to take away their ability to set property tax rates. That’s been the obvious destination from the start, and it is a straight path to disaster for Florida’s communities.”

Ingoglia said Monday that he has three big priorities: 1) Property tax relief, 2) Holding local governments accountable, and 3) Pushing down property insurance rates.

He said he “cut his teeth” two decades ago claiming that local governments had “gone wild” in their spending and it is funny that “what we are seeing right now is seeing government gone wild and run amok with a lot of our property tax dollars.”

Another responsibility for the CFO is overseeing insurance regulation.

“We need to hold the insurance companies accountable to do what they say that they are going to do, what they are contractually obligated to pay, because if they don’t they’re going to get fined,” he said, drawing cheers. “I am not here to protect the profits of insurance companies. I am not here to protect the profits of trial attorneys. What I am here to do is protect you, the policyholders, and I will continue do that.”

Democrats question whether Ingoglia will do that.

“Floridians deserve a CFO who will stand up to the insurance companies and help make property insurance more affordable,” Democratic House Leader Fentrice Driskell said upon his appointment to succeed Patronis in July.

“Instead, Ron DeSantis is appointing a Tallahassee politician more loyal to him than to the people. I believe Blaise Ingoglia will talk tough but continue the tradition of giving the insurance companies everything they ask for while Florida’s working families and seniors pay the price.”

Ingoglia is native New Yorker and homebuilder who moved to Spring Hill in Hernando County (about 50 miles north of Tampa) in the mid-1990s. He was elected to the Florida House in 2014 and simultaneously served as Republican Party of Florida chairman from 2015 to 2019. He had served in the Senate since 2022.

He’s a close political ally of Gov. DeSantis, who will be pushing for his election over the next year. The governor snubbed another Republican lawmaker who had previously announced his candidacy for CFO, Sarasota County’s Joe Gruters, who had already been endorsed by President Donald Trump. Early polls showed Gruters crushing Ingoglia in a presumptive Republican CFO primary in August 2026.

But that likely heavyweight matchup was averted after Trump elevated Gruters to lead the Republican National Committee. However, another Republican that Ingoglia may face next year is Rep. Kevin Steele, R-Dade City, former CEO of a health care technology company who announced on his 2022 financial disclosure form that he is worth more than $400 million.

Steele last week announced the creation of a political committee called “Friends of Kevin Steele.” Earlier this month, Florida Politics reported that Steele was being “encouraged” to run by Trump, which could prove a headache for Ingoglia.

Ingoglia boasted to the crowd that he was the RPOF’s chair when Trump narrowly defeated Hillary Clinton in Florida in 2016.

“I helped Donald Trump get elected in this state,” he said. “I was a campaign spokesman for him. An official surrogate in 2020. And that man is doing amazing things at the federal level right now.”

Two other Republicans have filed to run for CFO: Frank William Collige and Benjamin Horbowy. No Democrat has filed for the seat, according to the state’s Division of Elections website.

Ingoglia is a fiercely partisan Republican. He joked that when he growing up, his mother said that he could be anything he wanted, “So, I decided to become a problem for Democrats,” he said, generating laughs from the crowd. “And some Republicans, also,” he added.

In 2023, he filed a bill that, if enacted, would have eliminated the Florida Democratic Party. Dubbed “The Ultimate Cancel Act,” it was intended to “cancel” the filings of any party that previously advocated for slavery, which Southern Democrats did in the 19th Century. He later described the bill as a direct response to “leftist activists and their attempts to cancel people and companies.” (The bill never received a committee hearing).

He takes pride in being politically incorrect. He joked during his speech, “I’m a very big fan of DEI — and by that I mean deport every illegal.” In his video announcing his candidacy earlier this month, Ingoglia said that he spoke four languages: English, profanity, sarcasm and “real s—.”

During his tenure in the Legislature, Ingoglia sponsored some of DeSantis’ biggest priorities. In 2023, he led the way on SB 1718, a comprehensive crackdown on illegal immigration in Florida. That measure mandated the use of E-Verify for employers, banned the use of legally issued driver’s licenses from states that issue them regardless of immigration status, and provided $12 million in taxpayer dollars to fund a program that transported immigrants away from Florida.

Ingoglia also sponsored a bill that year that has made it much more difficult for teachers’ unions to collect dues and qualify to represent a bargaining unit.

Among those in attendance for the event were Pinellas County Sen. Nick DiCeglie (emcee of the event), Rep. Danny Alvarez (R-Hillsborough), Rep. Jeff Holcomb (R-Spring Hill), and former Lakeland area Republican lawmaker Kelli Stargell.

Ingolgia declined to take questions from reporters following the event.

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