ATLANTA (AP) — Florida conservative Joe Gruters, a Donald Trump cheerleader dating back to the president's days as a reality TV star, is now the Republican National Committee chairman.
Having no opposition after being tapped by the president, Gruters' was elected Friday at the Republicans' summer meeting in Atlanta.
For Gruters, the vote completes a steady climb from county party leader into the top ranks of Trump’s second presidency. For Trump, Gruters’ ratification reflects his penchant for loyal lieutenants and evolution from a new president disinterested in party machinery to an Oval Office veteran intent on gripping all levers of power.
After the vote Friday, Gruters thanked Trump for choosing him and promised RNC members he would focus on “election integrity," expanding Republican voter registration and preventing internal party discord. Elections, Gruters said, are won by “whatever party does a better job of uniting the factions and bringing everybody together.”
Here is a look at Gruters’ history with Trump and Republicans and what that means as he becomes chairman.
Gruters was with his ‘Statesman of the Year’ from the start
Trump’s decade of domination over Republican politics is replete with rivals and critics who melted into the fold. Vice President JD Vance once compared Trump to Adolf Hitler, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio labeled Trump a “con artist” and mocked his manhood.
But Gruters was a true believer years before Trump launched his first campaign in 2015.
“Joe bet on the horse before the track was even built,” said Christian Ziegler, a former Florida Republican chair and friend of Gruters.
In 2012, Gruters led the Sarasota County GOP, and Republicans were nominating Mitt Romney for president at their convention in nearby Tampa, Florida.
Romney, then the kind of moderate Republican that is now almost extinct in public office, had embraced Trump even as the businessman falsely questioned then-President Barack Obama’s birthplace and citizenship. Still, Trump was widely considered a liability for Romney against Obama, and Romney’s team was circumspect about whether Trump would have a convention role. While Trump was eventually confirmed as a speaker, an approaching tropical storm shortened the convention schedule, and his slot was among the casualties.
Enter Gruters.
The eager Sarasotan had already picked Trump as his county party’s “Statesman of the Year,” slotting a dinner gala at Sarasota’s Ritz-Carlton hotel on convention eve with 1,000 guests. It cemented an enduring friendship.
Gruters climbed the Florida ladder alongside Trump
Gruters’ support for Trump’s first presidential bid in 2015 stood out in Florida, given that Rubio and former Gov. Jeb Bush also were running.
In October, Gruters became co-chairman of Trump’s Florida campaign. His fellow chair was Susie Wiles, who is now Trump’s White House chief of staff. Bush didn’t make it to the Florida primary, and Trump trounced Rubio, ending the senator’s campaign.
Gruters was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2016 at the same time Trump won Florida’s electoral votes and the presidency. And Wiles, Gruters’ old Trump campaign partner, was the mastermind behind Florida Gov. DeSantis’ narrow 2018 victory.
So when it mattered, Gruters was well-positioned with a friend in the Oval Office and the governor’s office — buoyed by Wiles, who had distinguished herself as a Florida kingmaker.
Gruters navigated nasty party splits and Trump's election lies
All those powerful allies backed Gruters' successful bid for Florida GOP chairman in 2019.
Gruters and the party increased GOP registration across the state and helped push battleground Florida to a clearer conservative advantage. In 2020, as Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden flipped Sun Belt battlegrounds Arizona and Georgia, Trump won Florida comfortably.
That helped Gruters navigate Trump’s falsehoods that Biden’s national victory was rigged. Gruters chose his words carefully, stopping short of Trump’s election denialism yet ensuring he never drew the defeated president’s ire. Leaning on local results, Gruters called Florida the “gold standard.” He said there were “questions” about “shenanigans” in other states.
“Florida has been the center of everything,” said current state Chairman Evan Power. “Joe knows the successes and the lessons from Florida — he can bring that to the national level.”
Florida’s rightward shift yielded dominating reelection victories for DeSantis and Rubio in 2022. The win made DeSantis a presumed front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.
A certain Palm Beach resident, however, was not finished.
As Trump built his third campaign, Wiles stuck with him — not DeSantis. The governor ultimately broke with Wiles and Gruters. Then Trump buried DeSantis, just as he’d crushed Bush and Rubio. DeSantis made peace with Trump, but not with Gruters, describing him as recently as last month as having a “linguine spine.”
Gruters reaffirms Trump's hold on the Republican Party
Trump has cycled through multiple national GOP chairs. Reince Priebus in 2016 was the reluctant Trump backer who became the president’s chief of staff in 2017, only to be fired via social media post. Trump then turned to Ronna Romney McDaniel, Mitt’s niece. He eventually pushed out McDaniel and tapped North Carolina’s Michael Whatley as chairman, with daughter-in-law Lara Trump as family stand-in at party headquarters.
As chairman, Gruters will be a fundraising partner with the White House. The RNC is a key cog in joint party fundraising efforts that the president headlines.
Trump has always been his own primary messenger, but Gruters will be another notable face as the president approaches the 2026 midterms. That doesn’t just mean policy and branding but also the mechanics of elections. Gruters sidestepped Trump’s election denialism, but he’ll now be partly responsible for building teams of lawyers and poll watchers for a president who openly questions the efficacy of U.S. elections.
Beyond the midterms, Gruters will help set the presidential primary calendar, debate rules and other nuts and bolts of the 2028 campaign. While Trump is term-limited by the Constitution, he's made clear that he will not stay in the shadows as voters choose his successor. With Gruters, he has a direct line into that process.
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Gomez Licon reported from Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Bill Barrow And Adriana Gomez Licon, The Associated Press
