Joe Gruters (born June 7, 1977) is the Chairman of the

Florida Republican Party The Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) is the affiliate of the Republican Party in the U.S. state of Florida. It is currently the state's favored party, controlling the majority of Florida's U.S. House seats, both U.S. Senate seats, supermajori ...

, and a member of the

Florida Senate The Florida Senate is the upper house of the Florida Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Florida, the Florida House of Representatives being the lower house. Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution of Florida, adopted ...

representing the 23rd District which consists of

Sarasota County Sarasota County is a county located in Southwest Florida. At the 2020 US census, the population was 434,006. Its county seat is Sarasota and its largest city is North Port. Sarasota County is part of the North Port–Sarasota–Bradenton, FL m ...

and part of Charlotte County. He was previously a member of the

Florida House of Representatives The Florida House of Representatives is the lower house of the Florida Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Florida, the Florida Senate being the upper house. Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution of Florida, adopted ...

. Earlier in his career, Gruters worked on the campaign of U.S. Rep.

Vern Buchanan Vernon Gale Buchanan ( ; born May 8, 1951) is an American businessman and politician serving as the U.S. representative for Florida's 16th congressional district since 2013. A member of the Republican Party, he first entered Congress in 2007, re ...

as campaign manager and was vice chairman of the

Republican Party of Florida The Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) is the affiliate of the Republican Party in the U.S. state of Florida. It is currently the state's favored party, controlling the majority of Florida's U.S. House seats, both U.S. Senate seats, supermajori ...

and chairman of the Republican Party of Sarasota.

Political career

Campaign activities and rise to influence

Gruters lost his first two elections and worked behind the scenes on several more losing campaigns. He joined

’s original successful 2006 campaign for

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...

. Gruters subsequently was chairman of the Republican Party of Sarasota for ten years, longer than any of his predecessors. Gruters gained political influence as an early supporter of

Rick Scott Richard Lynn Scott ( Myers, born December 1, 1952) is an American politician serving as the junior United States senator from Florida since 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he was the 45th governor of Florida from 2011 to 2019. Scott ...

during his successful 2010 campaign for

governor of Florida A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political r ...

. Gruters' support earned him a high-profile appointment to the

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...

Board of Trustees. He became vice chairman of the Republican Party of Florida in 2015, and had strong political backers when he ran for the Florida House of Representatives' seat in 2016.

Trump supporter and Republican Party of Florida chairman

Gruters is one of

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

's closest political allies in Florida. An early Trump supporter, Gruters was Florida co-chairman of Trump's 2016 campaign. Gruters forged a relationship with Donald Trump in 2012 after Republican leaders snubbed the New York celebrity at the

Republican National Convention The Republican National Convention (RNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1856 by the United States Republican Party. They are administered by the Republican National Committee. The goal of the Repu ...

Tampa, Florida Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and ...

. Trump accepted an invitation from Gruters to invite him to speak in Sarasota the night before the convention. Gruters was elected to a two-year term as chairman of the Republican Party of Florida on January 11, 2019 at the party's annual meeting in

Orlando Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures rele ...

, winning a two-year term. He defeated Bob Starr of Charlotte County and succeeded state Representative

Blaise Ingoglia Blaise Ingoglia (born November 4, 1970) is an American politician who currently serves as a member of the Florida Senate, representing the 11th district, since 2022. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served in the Florida House of ...

. Gruters passed out red " Keep Florida Great" hats ahead of the vote and declared that his "singular focus over the next two years" was winning reelection for Trump. Gruters's easy election coincides with more internal unity among the Florida Republican Party, which had been divided after a

Jim Greer James A Greer (born June 8, 1962) is an American former politician and businessman, serving from 2006 to 2010 as the chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, and senior political and campaign adviser to the governor. Career Politics ...

scandal and had suffered internal fractures during the Governor Rick Scott's terms, when Scott withdrew financial and organization support for the party after Ingoglia had defeated Scott's preferred candidate. President Trump appointed Gruters to the

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

board of directors, subject to confirmation by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

. The confirmation was neither confirmed nor rejected and sent back to the President.

Florida Legislature

In 2016, Gruters won election to the

from the 73rd District, which includes Eastern

Manatee County Manatee County is a county in the Central Florida portion of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 US Census, the population was 399,710. Manatee County is part of the North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its county s ...

and Northeastern

, from 2016. In 2018, he won election to the

representing the 23rd District, consisting of

and part of Charlotte County. Gruters was endorsed in 2018 by the

Florida Chamber of Commerce The Florida Chamber of Commerce is an organization devoted to the advocacy of private businesses in the state of Florida. This Chamber originated in 1912, and included its first continuing group in 1916, the ''Florida Tick Eradication Committee''.h ...

. Gruters introduced three environmental bills in December 2018, ahead of the legislative session to address

red tide A harmful algal bloom (HAB) (or excessive algae growth) is an algal bloom that causes negative impacts to other organisms by production of natural phycotoxin, algae-produced toxins, mechanical damage to other organisms, or by other means. HABs are ...

and other issues: one bill would restore septic inspection regulations that had been lifted during the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred from late 2007 into 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country (see map). At ...

and another would fine polluters for sewage spills. In the wake of a fatal shooting at a California synagogue in 2019, the Florida Senate unanimously passed a bill by Gruters to combat

anti-Semitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

, including by requiring schools to deal with

anti-Semitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

behavior the same way they do racial discrimination. Gruters was a driving force behind Florida's 2019 law (S.B. 198) that forces local and state law enforcement to honor

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the United States from the cross-border crime and illegal immigration tha ...

detainer Detainer (from detain, Latin detinere); originally in British law, the act of keeping a person against his will, or the wrongful keeping of a person's goods, or other Real property, real or personal property. A writ of detainer was a form for the be ...

s and prohibits local government from implementing "

sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred place, such as a shrine. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This secondary use can be categorized into human sanctuary, a saf ...

" policies (which no Florida government had adopted). The controversial bill passed the Florida Senate 22-18,Elizabeth Koh
Gov. DeSantis signs 'sanctuary cities' ban into law. There aren't any in Florida.
''Miami Herald''/''Tampa Bay Times'' Tallahassee Bureau (June 14, 2019). and was signed into law by Florida's Republican governor,

Ron DeSantis Ronald Dion DeSantis (; born September 14, 1978) is an American politician serving as the 46th governor of Florida since January 2019. A member of the Republican Party, DeSantis represented Florida's 6th district in the U.S. House of Represe ...

. Gruters sponsored Senate Bill 796, requiring electric utilities to adopt long-term plans for burying electric lines as a protective measure against

hurricanes A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

; the Senate voted 39-1 in favor of the bill. Gruters filed a bill to ban abortions 20 weeks after fertilization. Gruters sponsored Senate Bill 230, a piece of legislation that would reinstate Florida's controversial quest to identify purported noncitizen voters. The legislation would require the supervisor of elections in each Florida county to enter into a local agreement with court officials to obtain a list of jurors who have self-identified as non-citizens. That list would then be compared to the registered voter rolls and the non-citizen names would be purged. Prior efforts to purge the voters in Florida have been botched, with lists of purported "noncitizens" containing some U.S. citizens. The president of the

League of Women Voters of Florida The League of Women Voters of Florida (LWVFL) is a civic organization in the state of Florida. The organization is nonpartisanship, nonpartisan; the League's Bylaws mandate that the organization will not support any political candidate or party. ...

called Gruters' piece of legislation "most likely a politically motivated proposal." While in the House, Gruters co-sponsored the Florida Competitive Workforce Act to amend the 1992 Florida Civil Rights Act, the state's anti-discrimination law, to include protections against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.Zac Anderson
Gruters files LGBTQ anti-discrimination bill, but some say it falls short
''Sarasota Herald-Tribune'' (January 24, 2021). In 2019, he introduced the Florida Inclusive Workforce Act to ban

employment Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any othe ...

discrimination against LGBT people {{broad-concept article Discrimination against LGBT people includes: *Discrimination against lesbians *Discrimination against gay men *Discrimination against bisexuals *Discrimination against asexuals *Discrimination against transgender men *Discrim ...

. This was a scaled-back version of the legislation; unlike the bill Gruters had previously supported, it would not extend the anti-discrimination provisions in

housing Housing, or more generally, living spaces, refers to the construction and assigned usage of houses or buildings individually or collectively, for the purpose of shelter. Housing ensures that members of society have a place to live, whether it ...

and

public accommodations In United States law, public accommodations are generally defined as facilities, whether publicly or privately owned, that are used by the public at large. Examples include retail stores, rental establishments, and service establishments as well ...

. The omissions were opposed by the LGBT rights group

Equality Florida Equality Florida is a political advocacy group that advocates for civil rights and protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) residents of the U.S. state of Florida. Equality Florida consists of two organizations - Equ ...

; Gruters defended the bill's incrementalist approach, saying it would maximize the chances of passage. Gruters is also proposing legislation that would ban smoking at public beaches statewide. Violators would be fined up to $25 or given up to 10 hours of public service. After Joe Biden won the 2020 election and Donald Trump refused to concede while making false claims of fraud, Gruters pushed for legislation in the Florida legislature that would restrict voting rights in the state. In 2021, Gruters called for cancelling all existing mail-in ballot requests, saying they would "devastating" for Republicans up for re-election in 2022.

Personal life

Gruters is a

Certified Public Accountant Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is the title of qualified accountants in numerous countries in the English-speaking world. It is generally equivalent to the title of chartered accountant in other English-speaking countries. In the United Sta ...

. Gruters lives in

, is married to Sydney Gruters and they have three children.

References

, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Gruters, Joe 1977 births 21st-century American politicians Florida State University alumni Living people Republican Party members of the Florida House of Representatives People from Sarasota, Florida University of South Florida alumni State political party chairs of Florida 2020 United States presidential electors