Gov. Ron DeSantis on July 16 named state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia as Florida’s new Chief Financial Officer, more than three months after Jimmy Patronis left the Cabinet post to take a seat in Congress.
Ingoglia, 54, is a Spring Hill Republican and businessman who is a staunch DeSantis ally. He owns homebuilding company Hartland Homes and listed his net worth at $28.3 million on his most recent financial disclosure.
He served as chair of the Republican Party of Florida in 2015–19 and later helped run a DeSantis political committee when the governor ran for the GOP nomination for president in 2024.
This latest move, however, also sets up a political clash between DeSantis and President Donald Trump.
On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly bashed DeSantis on his way to easily winning the nomination and the general election. The two have thawed their frosty relationship since Trump took office in January – but that will likely change with the appointment of Ingoglia.
Sen. Blaise Ingoglia speaks to the media after the Senate adjourned its floor session Monday, Jan. 27, 2025.
Trump already has endorsed state Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, for the CFO race next year. Gruters, 48, is an accountant by trade who also served as RPOF chair, taking over after Ingoglia left the position in 2019.
Gruters is a longtime Trump backer who endorsed him over DeSantis during the primary and has already amassed a $917,000 war chest for the campaign.
Two key pieces of Trump’s 2024 campaign, pollster Tony Fabrizio and senior advisor Chris LaCivita, said they’ll work on Gruters’ race.
“Joe is a rockstar who has earned the trust and support of President Trump,” Fabrizio said in a statement. “DeSantis learned the hard way that opposing President Trump in statewide Republican contests is a recipe for disaster.
“Appointing a Never-Trumper for CFO over Trump’s endorsed candidate will be viewed as a direct rebuke to the MAGA agenda and will end up just like DeSantis’ other anti-MAGA efforts.”
Ingoglia fills spot vacant since April 1
Ingoglia’s appointment fills a key position on the Cabinet that had been left vacant since April 1. That’s when Patronis, a Panama City Republican, won a Panhandle-based U.S. House seat in a special election.
Patronis announced his resignation in December 2024 when he decided to run for the seat vacated by former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, who was initially appointed to be U.S. attorney general by Trump but ran into opposition to his confirmation in the U.S. Senate.
Patronis previously urged DeSantis to name a successor well before he left office, saying the post was too important to be left vacant for long.
The CFO is in charge of paying all state vendors, leads the Department of Financial Services which oversees state insurance and financial regulators. The incumbent also acts as the state fire marshal.
But DeSantis said he wanted to vet potential candidates and didn’t want to fill the post until after the legislative session, which was supposed to end May 2 but ultimately dragged on until June 16 amid a stalemate over budget talks between the state House and Senate.
Although DeSantis named an interim or temporary attorney general when that position became vacant earlier this year before eventually tapping James Uthmeier to the post, he didn’t take that approach with the CFO job. Instead, Susan Miller, who was chief of staff under Patronis, has been the de facto leader of the department, acting with the authority of the CFO but without the title.
This is a developing news story. Check back later for more.
Gray Rohrer is a reporter with the USA TODAY Network-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at grohrer@gannett.com. Follow him on X: @GrayRohrer.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: DeSantis names Ingoglia as state CFO over Trump-backed Gruters