Republican National Committeewoman Kathleen King recalls first meeting Joe Gruters as a twenty-something campaign staffer.
Two decades later, King stood on stage in Atlanta to make the final nomination for Gruters to chair the national party.
“It’s pretty neat. It’s incredible,” she said. “But we’ve worked hard for it.”
She noted Gruters first ran for office around age 20, then making an unsuccessful challenge against Democratic state Rep. Shirley Brown when Democrats largely ran Florida. She met Gruters when he served as campaign treasurer for now-U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan’s first race for Congress, a contest the Republican won by just 369 votes.
King then served as Chair of the Manatee County Republican Party, and Gruters would within a couple years be Chair of the Republican Party of Sarasota in a neighboring county. That meant the two worked together for years on regional races as both counties shifted increasingly red.
Ultimately, King would become the longest serving county GOP Chair in state history and Gruters would be elected Republican Party of Florida State Chair. Both serve now as Florida’s National Committee members.
Their rise to the top parallels Florida’s ultimate transition from a purple state to a distinctly red one.
“He’s relentless, but I think he’s reliable. He always shows up,” King said. “And those aren’t just things I said. His philosophy is never to be outworked on a campaign or at work.”
In Sarasota, Gruters stepped away from running the county party but continued to work closely with Jack Brill, his successor at the Republican Party of Sarasota.
Brill released a statement cheering Gruters’ elevation to RNC Chair as well.
“Joe’s election is a win for the Republican Party and for America. He was a warrior for President (Donald) Trump from the very beginning, and he will bring the same winning formula that turned Florida deep red, and Sarasota County even redder, to the rest of the nation,” Brill said.
“We are thrilled to have his back at every step and look forward to working with him nationally to ensure the Trump agenda is fully enacted and America is made great again.”
Danielle Alvarez, a Florida-based political consultant working with the RNC, has known Gruters from the campaign trail since around 2010.
“I remember my first event we had, we were building out an office in Sarasota when he was a Sarasota County chair,” Alvarez told Florida Politics in Atlanta. “Joe and I, and like another staffer or two, were up until 2 or 3 in the morning, setting up this office because it was just so important. And it’s that type of work ethic that has made Joe so successful.”
It makes sense, she said, for Florida to export Gruters to the national party after his success in flipping the GOP registration advantage in the state.
“When you look at Florida as a model for the rest of the country in the way that we are able to get out the vote, it’s again, a testament to the candidates that we have and we recruit. It’s a testament to the Republican Party of Florida the way we are able to run campaigns,” Alvarez said. “And that’s a testament to the work that Joe Gruters has done.”
Many reports note Gruters became an early supporter of Trump’s campaign for President. King notes that’s hardly first high-stakes gamble that Gruters made in his career.
He also organized events for Rick Scott when the now-U.S. Senator first ran for Governor, challenging the state’s entrenched GOP establishment. Scott went on to win two terms as Governor before unseating Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson in 2018.
“He (Gruters) is a risk-taker. He doesn’t play it safe with the endorsements,” King said. “But there was always a strategy with that, and always a plan. Joe’s going to help us by keeping us all aligned and organized.”
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