FILE - Joe Gruters, a Florida state senator, RNC committee member, and longtime ally of President Donald Trump, is expected to win election on Friday as Republican National Committee chair as the national party committee holds its summer meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. (REUTERS/Octavio Jones)
The president called Gruters, who co-chaired Trump's 2016 campaign in Florida, a "Fierce Advocate for our Movement" and a "MAGA warrior who has been with us from the very beginning."
And Trump said that the 48-year-old Gruters, who served as Florida GOP chair from 2019 to 2023, had "helped us deliver massive and historic Victories across the state."
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An RNC insider, pointing to the surge in Republican voter registration in Florida during Gruters' tenure as state party chair, said that he was instrumental in turning "a very purple state into a ruby-red state and that's what he's going to bring across the country."
"He has won Republican races, gotten out the vote, and protected the vote in Florida," the insider, who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely, said.
RNC Chair Michael Whatley announces his run for Senator for North Carolina on July 31st, 2025 in Gastonia, N.C. (Fox News Digital- Paul Steinhauser)
Whatley announced his Senate bid on July 31, four days after Democrats landed their top recruit, former two-term Gov. Roy Cooper.
"President Trump deserves an ally, and North Carolina deserves a strong conservative voice in the Senate," Whatley emphasized as he spoke to a crowd of family, friends and supporters as he declared his candidacy. "I will be that voice."
The Senate race in battleground North Carolina is expected to be one of the most expensive and competitive in the country, as the GOP defends its 53-47 majority in the chamber.
"We will be the most expensive Senate race in the history of the country," Whatley told Fox News Digital. "But, look, we will be able to raise the resources we need to tell our story, and we are going to work all 100 counties here across North Carolina to be able to tell our story.
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Gruters, an accountant who has spent a nearly a decade in the Florida legislature, is close with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, a fellow Floridian who was co-campaign manager of Trump's 2024 presidential bid.
And Gruters has often clashed with the state's two-term Republican governor, Ron DeSantis.
Gruters backed Trump over DeSantis in the 2024 Republican presidential nomination race.
Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in the swing state of New Hampshire. He covers the campaign trail from coast to coast."
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/longtime-trump-ally-gruters-expected-succeed-whatley-republican-party-chair