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Governor Ron DeSantis delivers remarks to supporters at a campaign rally for President Donald Trump on October 23 in The Villages, Florida | Photo AP / John Raoux
TALLAHASSEE – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has yet to approve the re-election of party chairman Joe Gruters, sending a silent message of disapproval that has sparked intra-party drama.
The Republican governor’s refusal to weigh in on the post of head of state party is unusual, especially after President Donald Trump has taken the battlefield and Republicans bragged about ballot victories.
Gruters has claimed he has the governor’s backing, and the widespread victories have given him political clout to retain his post when the party votes in January. But DeSantis will be among the candidates running for the poll in 2022, and his statements – or lack thereof – in the coming weeks could determine who will take the reigns of the party.
“I have support wherever I need help, including Tallahassee,” Gruters said in an interview Monday. “The leadership of the House and Senate, as well as the governor and his team.”
DeSantis spokesman Fred Piccolo declined to say whether the governor supports Gruters’s re-election.
DeSantis and Gruters have long-standing heads on fundraising, party structure, and even Gruters’ pay. Five people close to the governor’s thought say tensions between the two have not subsided despite the successful electoral cycle.
“He doesn’t like it, but doesn’t want blood on his hands,” said a DeSantis ally familiar with the dynamics of the President’s race.
DeSantis and Gruters clashed early in the governor’s tenure, and the rivalry between the two has been no secret.
In October 2019, Gruters canceled the Statesman’s Dinner, the party’s largest annual fundraiser. The party announced the move on Twitter even as DeSantis chief of staff Shane Strum asked Gruters to wait while the governor negotiated to get Trump as the keynote speaker.
The cancellation angered DeSantis. A day later, he blinded Gruters by telling reporters that the event was still relevant, with Trump headlining.
When DeSantis made the announcement, Gruters was on the phone with party leaders tasked with controlling the damage.
Around the same time, DeSantis attempted to reduce Gruters’ pay.
Gruters admitted he hasn’t had a close relationship with DeSantis, but said things have improved over the past year.
The Florida GOP in the past has chosen chairs without governor’s support, with disastrous results. In 2015, the party chose state representative Blaise Ingoglia (R-Spring Hill) over Leslie Dougher, then governor. The chair chosen by Rick Scott.
As a result, Scott pulled out his formidable party fundraising machine, leaving it tottering and snapped.
Gruters shook Republicans last week when he tweeted props to Florida Senator Jason Pizzo, a Democrat from Miami and possible DeSantis challenger.
“@SenPizzo is a thoughtful and hardworking member who has the ability to work across the aisle and he is also a successful businessman and advocate for the free market and policies that will continue to move Florida forward. “, Gruters tweeted. “Certainly not a socialist.”
Pizzo, on Twitter, had asked Gruters for his opinion.
Gruters later in the day tweeted that DeSantis would “run over Senator Pizzo and I’ll have no problem hitting him if he runs”, but the damage was done.
Many Republicans saw the tweet as a damaging strategic error after Republicans successfully branded Democrats as socialists. The label is South Florida’s political kryptonite, home to immigrants from Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, many of whom fled left-wing strongman regimes.
When President-elect Joe Biden won Miami-Dade County by just 7 points, Republicans attributed their forays to the Democrats’ branding as socialist sympathizers.
“This last election was a referendum on socialism. Gruters just handed Pizzo his main argument and all the votes Biden lost in Miami-Dade, ”said a Republican consultant involved in the leadership struggle but not aligned with a specific candidate. “It’s not every day that a GOP president paves the way for the governor’s mansion for a Democrat.”
Gruters, who is also an elected state senator, helped Trump win Florida twice and before 2016 he was named him three times Republican Party Statesman of the Year for Sarasota County. Gruters is president of the Sarasota GOP.
Gruters’s list of potential challengers includes Leon County GOP Chairman Evan Power, who considered running for president before the party chose Gruters in 2018, and former State Representative Matt Caldwell, who lost a candidacy for the post of agricultural commissioner in 2018 by less than 7,000 votes. .
Caldwell, the only Republican in the entire state to lose that year, said the party led by Gruters had made mistakes.
“I was blown away that there was no set campaign the Wednesday following the primaries,” Caldwell said in an interview Monday. “I thought there would be a bus at the front door and someone saying, ‘Come on up, you have a 10 week spring ahead’. But it was every man for himself.
“It might be one thing for Senate campaigns and Governors who have tons of resources, but it doesn’t always work for Cabinet races,” he said.
Power gave the 2020 credit to DeSantis, who, he said, “has played a significant role for the Florida Republican Party this cycle by making a huge investment in voter registration.
Gary Fineout contributed to this report.
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