The Red Florida Dinner in Orlando served as a celebration of White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles’ consulting career.
But Wiles told attendees the most rewarding result of her work wasn’t the ascension of candidates to public office but the emulation of techniques that have reshaped Florida politics over the last two decades and which continue to be adopted across the nation.
“I find it amazingly wonderful that almost every speaker has talked about voter registration and grassroots,” she said. “It is the backbone of what we do and why we do it and why we win.”
And win, she has.
Political leaders, some in attendance and some sending video messages remotely, recounted the series of victories Wiles racked up. That culminated in November, when she managed President Donald Trump’s successful campaign to return to the White House.
“We call it the greatest political comeback in political history,” Wiles said. “I don’t know if others will agree with that, but that’s what we think about in the 2024 campaign.”
But Florida political leaders know the Jacksonville-based consultant’s work started long before that. She worked for Lenny Curry, a former Republican Party of Florida Chair, when he won election as Jacksonville Mayor. That came after Wiles signed on as manager for a virtual political unknown named Rick Scott when the health care executive decided to run for Florida Governor in 2010.
Tony Fabrizio, Trump’s top pollster, recalled meeting at the time with Scott and with Wiles about her possible addition to his campaign. Fabrizio praised Wiles to Scott, but wondered allowed why she would risk her campaign on a candidate opposing the establishment pick of Attorney General Bill McCollum that year. The answer?
“Susie never runs from a fight,” Fabrizio said. “Susie runs to the fight.”
Scott won that tight Republican Primary that year, then won another nailbiter General Election. Four years later, Wiles helped the Naples Republican win re-election.
She then served as co-chair of the Florida arm of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, along with Joe Gruters. Wiles and Gruters helped Trump win Florida’s electoral votes in three consecutive presidential elections: 2016, 2020 and 2024. Wiles not served as the President’s top staffer while Gruters will lead the Republican National Committee as a result.
Along the way, she also jumped onto then-U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis’ underdog campaign for Governor in 2018 after he won the nomination. While the two later had a falling out, that came only after DeSantis narrowly won the Governor’s mansion.
Republican Party of Florida Chair Evan Power said that was especially meaningful, as DeSantis beat Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum despite trailing him in most polls up to Election Day.
“”Can you imagine if Andrew Gillum was our Governor?” Power said at the dinner.
James Blair, White House Deputy Chief of Staff and a Wiles mentee, spoke at the dinner as well and suggested all of the top voices in GOP politics in Florida owe something to his boss.
“There would be no Rick Scott without Susie Wiles. There would be no Ron DeSantis without Susie Wiles,” he said.
Scott communicated his gratitude in a video message praising Wiles’ work in Florida and now in Washington. DeSantis, given an afternoon speaking spot at the Florida Freedom Forum, skipped the dinner.
But both Trump and Vice President JD Vance also sent personal messages, played on big screens to the cheers of GOP faithful at the party dinner.
“You are a spectacular woman, and you are truly a great statesman, stateswoman, a very, very special person,” Trump said in the message.
Wiles, for her part, praised the leadership of the many candidates she worked for, as well as many consultants who worked for her through the years. Many figures, she said, were as deserving of a Statesman honor.
She also noted the outsized amount of Florida talent now powering the administration. That includes high profile figures like Attorney General Pam Bondi, formerly Florida’s Attorney General, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, previously a U.S. Senator for the state. But also includes staffers like her and Blair, and countless others.
“Floridians overpopulate the West Wing in a really big way,” she said.
She praised Trump, himself a full-time Florida resident, as well. She said the President was as committed to building the base as she has always been. While provocatively saying Trump wasn’t going to be a candidate again “unless he is,” the goal has always been lasting GOP strength.
“It’s our job to make sure the people in the country who are Trump voters are Republicans forever,” she said.
She said that in many ways is just a national follow-through on the approach she has taken in Florida campaigns for years.
“And I hope Florida is so proud of itself,” she said. “You should be.”
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