RNC Elects Trump-Backed Joe Gruters as Chairman

ATLANTA—The Republican National Committee (RNC) has formally chosen its outgoing treasurer, Florida state Sen. Joe Gruters, as its new leader.

He was elected on Aug. 22 at the RNC’s summer meeting in Atlanta.

“The midterms are ahead, where we must expand our current majority in the House and Senate,” Gruters said after his election.

New York Republican National Committee member Jennifer Rich was also elected treasurer of the RNC, replacing Gruters.

President Donald Trump, now the dominant influence on national GOP leadership, endorsed the Republican from Sarasota on Truth Social on Aug. 1. He described Gruters as a “MAGA warrior” and someone “who has been with us from the very beginning.”

Gruters co-chaired Trump’s 2016 campaign in the Sunshine State, where he defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after Republican presidential candidates lost there in both 2008 and 2012. His co-chair, Susie Wiles, is now the White House chief of staff.

No one challenged Gruters in his effort to replace outgoing Chairman Michael Whatley, another Trump-backed figure. Whatley was elected in March 2024 alongside Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump, who served as the RNC’s vice chair through much of 2024.

On July 31, Whatley launched a campaign for the Senate seat currently held by Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.). That came just a month after Tillis revealed he would retire at the end of his term, a decision he announced after coming out against Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill.

“He will not let you down,” Whatley said of Gruters.

KC Crosbie, the RNC’s co-chair, praised Whatley’s tenure as RNC leader.

“He has completely transformed this organization. He along with co-chair Trump made everything about winning. … What happened in 2024? We won,” she said.

Shawn Steel, the RNC member from California, told The Epoch Times that he was very pleased with the latest moves from Gruters and Whatley.

He said he spent the meeting seeking support to counter California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s redistricting push, which threatens Republican seats across the state.

Brian Schimming, who chairs the Republican Party of Wisconsin, told The Epoch Times that RNC chairs who have led state parties are particularly effective.

“If you call them on an issue, not only are they responsive, but they also understand,” he said. “Probably 90 percent of the chairs have the same set of issues—fundraising, data lists, turnout.”

The president previously endorsed Gruters in his successful bid to serve as the RNC’s treasurer, a post he assumed in January. In June, Trump appointed Gruters as vice chair of the Homeland Security Advisory Council.

The state senator also chaired the Florida Republican Party from 2019 through 2023, beginning soon after Ron DeSantis was elected governor.

During that time, the number of registered Republicans in the state climbed, while the number of registered Democrats declined.

A roughly 225,000-voter advantage for Democrats in 2019 flipped to an almost 780,000-voter edge for Republicans in 2023. That gap has continued to widen since Gruters left the role.

Whatley credited Gruters with leading “the transformation of Florida from a purple state to a red state.”

Trump, DeSantis, and Gruters

Trump also backed Gruters in his efforts to serve as Florida’s chief financial officer. The slot opened up when former CFO Jimmy Patronis entered the special election to fill the seat vacated by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).

But Gruters did not win the support of DeSantis, the man ultimately empowered to fill the vacancy in his cabinet—that is, until November 2026, when Florida voters will decide who serves as CFO.

In July, DeSantis appointed then-state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia as CFO. Ingoglia, like Gruters, once led the Florida Republican Party.

When asked why he chose Ingoglia over Gruters, the Florida governor said the latter’s record did not reflect conservative values.

“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,” he said at a July 16 press conference.

He cited Gruters’s support for Florida’s Amendment 3, which would have legalized recreational marijuana use by adults over 21 years of age.

DeSantis opposed the amendment, which netted a majority of the vote in a 2024 referendum, but fell short of the necessary 60 percent to make it into the state’s constitution.

Earlier this year, DeSantis opposed a Gruters-sponsored immigration bill that he said wasn’t tough enough.

“We don’t have time for weakness,” he said soon after it passed the state Legislature.

DeSantis ultimately vetoed that bill. Days earlier, however, he signed two other Gruters-sponsored bills that expanded immigration enforcement, created new criminal penalties for some illegal aliens, and cracked down on the issuance of driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.

In July, Gruters announced he had hired Trump campaign veterans Chris LaCivita and Tony Fabrizio for his CFO campaign.

Gruters addressed criticisms of his conservatism in his speech after being elected, saying a successful leader would have to bring together competing factions within the party.

Schimming said the dispute over Gruters’s conservatism was “not a nationwide thing.”

“That’s kind of a Florida thing,” he said.