DeSantis Picks Blaise Ingoglia For CFO; Says He Never Would Have Chosen Joe Gruters

By Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix

July 17, 2025

The state of Florida has a new chief financial officer, and the Republican Party of Florida has a new schism in its ranks leading to next year’s primary election for that seat.

That’s apparent now that, as anticipated, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday appointed Hernando Republican state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia to serve as Florida’s next chief financial officer. The position had been vacant for the past three-and-a-half months after former CFO Jimmy Patronis stepped down upon his election to Congress in Florida’s First Congressional District on April 1.

An extremely close ally of the governor, Ingoglia was always the inside pick for the governor to fill the position. In choosing him, DeSantis bypassed Sarasota Republican state Sen. Joe Gruters, who has previously declared his candidacy for the seat, which is up for election in 2026. Ingolia already has the backing of Donald Trump, making him the early front-runner for the nomination.

DeSantis said he wanted someone in the job who holds conservative principles and is “dedicated to the mission.” He extolled Ingoglia’s conservative record on issues like illegal immigration, voting integrity, and cracking down on human trafficking.

Ingoglia is a native New Yorker and homebuilder who moved to Spring Hill (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 has been in the Senate since 2022.

He began his remarks by saying that he had told DeSantis some time ago that he had been considering a run for higher office and that the governor had predicted it would be the CFO spot.

“The governor knows how much I care about spending,” he said. “He knows how much I care about spending less and having better outcomes, and sometimes that is the opposite of what government does. But that’s never stopped me. I have a history of calling out wasteful spending, whether it was Democrats or Republicans. Because I truly believe that government is accountable to the people and our job is that we deliver that promise.”

Ingoglia has already appeared with DeSantis on several occasions this year in roundtable discussions pushing for property tax reform, and said that he will continue over the next year. “I’m going to work hand and glove, side by side with this governor to make sure that we get rid of property taxes on homestead exemption and offer real property tax relief to the people of the state of Florida,” he said.

Sounding already like a candidate making his case before the voters, Ingoglia said that he would continue to work on the property insurance issues that are a big part of his job description, as well as housing affordability.

“If an insurance company does not do what they say they are going to do and contractually obligated to do, I am going to call you out,” he threatened. “I am going to make sure that people know that the CFO will stand with people against unscrupulous insurance companies who are not doing what they are supposed to be doing.”

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.

Patronis had served as Florida’s CFO from the time he was appointed by then-Gov. Rick Scott in 2017 until March 31, 2025, when he resigned a day ahead of his successful election to Congress. Since then, the seat has stood empty. That void bothered Patronis, who told Matt Gaetz’ talk-show last month that he was concerned.

“I watched every single dollar, I could audit every single transaction, I could question any finances anywhere in the state if it’s taxpayer related,” Patronis said. “Without a CFO in place, who in the hell is doing the business of the people?”

Taking questions from reporters after the announcement, DeSantis pounced when asked why he didn’t pick the already Trump-endorsed Gruters for the position.

“Blaise has done what the voters who’ve elected us expect,” the governor said. “Joe Gruters has taken major positions that are totally contrary from what our voter base wants to do. So when it comes to making an appointment, I have to go on the record. I can tell you that if Blaise supported the [House Speaker Daniel] Perez/Gruters [immigration] amnesty bill? He would not be standing on this stage today. That’s just the truth. And I like him personally, but it doesn’t matter — it’s all about the record.”

To make his point, DeSantis avowed that even if George Washington rose from the dead and patted him on the shoulder and said he should appoint Gruters to the CFO spot, he wouldn’t be able to do it.

“My response would be, ‘No, I can’t do that without betraying the voters that elected me to lead the state in a conservative direction,'” he said.

Among the votes and issues that DeSantis recounted were Gruters’ vote for the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act in 2018, which Ingoglia opposed and that included provisions such as raising the age to purchase a long gun from 18 to 21; adding a three-day wait period between the purchase and delivery of a firearm (or until the background check is completed); and a red-flag law preventing persons at a high risk from harming themselves or others from possessing firearms. (Second Amendment advocates have maintained that provision is unconstitutional).

DeSantis also noted Gruters’ opposition to a 2023 bill that eviscerated many of Florida’s public sector unions, and his support for the 2024 proposed state constitutional amendment that would have legalized recreational cannabis.

“Gruters sided with the mega-weed company Trulieve and was joining with liberal Democrats to try to do it, so his record is contrary to what we’ve told the voters what we would do.”

The Gruters campaign declined an opportunity to respond to DeSantis’ remarks, but made their biggest statement the day before the press conference, issuing a press release reporting that they were hiring two of Trump’s top political advisers — 2024 campaign co-manager Chris LaCivita and pollster Tony Fabrizio.

“The choice between a MAGA-first patriot and a Never-Trumper is never really a choice,” said LaCivita, noting that Ingoglia did not endorse Trump in 2016 or 2024, when he was strongly backing DeSantis for the Republican nomination for president. “I’ve worked with Joe Gruters for years and can say that few have done more in Florida to advance the America First agenda.”

Gruters is a Sarasota CPA who also served as the Republican Party of Florida chair, succeeding Ingoglia in leading the state party from 2019 until 2023. He was initially elected to the Florida House in 2016 and to the state Senate in 2018.

A public opinion survey conducted earlier this week of 763 Republican voters by St. Pete Polls showed Gruters crushing Ingoglia in a head-to-head matchup by nearly 50 percentage points, 60%-10%, with 30% undecided. Frank William Collige and Benjamin Horbowy have also filed to enter the Republican CFO primary, according to the Division of Elections. No Democrat has entered the race yet.

Fentrice Driskell, the Florida House Democratic Leader, issued a statement following DeSantis’ appointment of Ingoglia.

“Floridians deserve a CFO who will stand up to the insurance companies and help make property insurance more affordable,” she said. “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.”

She went on to note that while Ingoglia says he wants to fight wasteful spending, he was “gleefully cheerleading the $450 million Everglades detention camp” last weekend.

“He also has a long history in the legislature of working to make it harder to vote and promoting partisan stunts like trying to outlaw the Democratic Party,” she added.

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