Joe Gruters, against long odds, led Florida Republicans to victory

Joe Gruters delivered Florida to Donald Trump and Republicans. That won't make his reelection any easier. Image via Facebook

The path to reelection may nearly be evaporated for Donald Trump. But it’s not because of any underperformance by the Republican Party of Florida.

Led by Trump ally Joe Gruters, the state party defied all conventional wisdom, tallying victories and running up margins beyond expectations.

The state party won the Presidential race in Florida by a margin that dwarfed Barack Obama’s 2008 win by more than half a percentage point. Two Democratic Congresswomen were drummed out of office while Democrats hoped for their first delegation majority since the 1980s. The GOP majority in the Florida House grew to near super-majority levels. And unless a recount flips results in the only pending Senate race, Republicans appear on the precipice of expanding the caucus in the upper chamber as well.

“What went right is our entire operation,” Gruters said. “We were literally firing on all cylinders and rowing in the same direction. Everyone was focused on making it a win.”

On a call from Las Vegas, Gruters feels excited as some pundits point to the Sunshine State for shining light on a path forward for the party. He said he’s in Nevada rolling dice, not seeking votes. It should be no surprise a trip to the gambling tables would be where he went to unwind considering the odds he repeatedly beat to get to this position today.

He sits today on Florida Politics list of winners and a few nights ago seemed one of Florida’s leaders with the most on the line in Tuesday’s election. That’s a big win, all the more so considering just a year ago rumored tension between the Sarasota Republican and Gov. Ron DeSantis dominated headlines on Florida’s political news sites.

This is the Gruters who a few years ago became one of the first political leaders in the state to jump on the Trump train when it still seemed a quixotic celebrity’s fantasy campaign. Now he’s delivered Trump’s most important battleground win, and perhaps the only prize keeping any hope alive in Trump world today, even if hope has all but evaporated with Biden now leading in Pennsylvania and Georgia.

This is the Gruters who criss-crossed the state in an unsuccessful effort to become the youngest state party chair, just to get a fall a few years later recruiting him to lead the party through a historic presidential election cycle, picking up a critical endorsement from DeSantis shortly after his own unexpected 2018 victory in the Governor’s race.

This is the Gruters who as a county party chair risked the ire of a Mitt Romney-fronted national party by hosting a Statesman of the Year event for Trump even as the Republican National Convention in Tampa delayed its start because of a threatening hurricane.

This is the Gruters who insisted on hosting a Sarasota event during the 2010 Republican primary for Governor for outsider Rick Scott, even though then-Attorney General Bill McCollum wanted unanimous establishment support for his bid. It seemed at the time simply offering equal time to all candidates threatened the young county party chair’s standing with the RPOF at the time. Scott won the primary and Governor’s mansion and now represents Florida in the U.S. Senate.

This is the Gruters who in his 20s challenged a sitting state House Democrat only to lose by more than 20 percentage points, but who just won reelection to the Florida Senate by a similar margin, and just wrapped two years as chair of the Commerce and Tourism Committee as a freshman.

It’s a good time to be the Senator from Sarasota, and his future seems like a good bet. While there was plenty of scuttlebutt about potential challenges to his party leadership had the election gone a different way — for example the way all the polls said it would go — there’s been so such gossip since Tuesday night.

Yet, Gruters when asked about the election passes credit in any number of directions. Chris Sprowls defied predictions the GOP House caucus would shrink. A close ally of Trilby Sen. Wilton Simpson, he said the Senate President’s solid tactics ensured Gruters remains in a majority for his second Senate term.

“Most thought we would lose seats on both sides (of the Legislature.) That’s an unbelievable feat,” Gruters said. “We were so successful up and down the ballot.”

Credit goes there, too, for the success in the statewide Presidential race, Gruters said. Kicking up Republican turnout in every battleground for House and Senate inevitably helped the President. That’s a lesson other states could learn from.

Sprowls won’t let Gruters evade all the credit.

“Joe Gruters did an excellent job running the Republican Party of Florida this cycle, being a surrogate for President Trump, and supporting House and Senate candidates across the State,” he said. “The proof of his impact is in the results.”

But Gruters put a visible level of sweat equity into the race as well. He and RPOF Vice Chair Christian Ziegler, a fellow Sarasota County party leader, criss-crossed the state in the months leading to Tuesday, visiting 39 states in 100 days. Each weekend brought new social media pictures of Gruters and Ziegler riding through The Villages, the streets of Little Havana or the outskirts of Alachua County.

“We walked about as many counties as we could squeeze in,” Ziegler said. He suggested the pair would have hit more if not for the scheduling disruptions that come with a Presidential race, requiring Gruters’ presence at short-notice rallies in population centers of the state.

But then the itinerary worked out fine. The fact Gruters went door-to-door talking with voters played a major role in the party’s successes, by Ziegler’s reckoning. Nothing stresses the stake of a race like a party chair showing up at your front porch.

And the work didn’t go unnoticed. Praise for Gruters showered in from many of Florida’s top leaders.

“What a win, Senator Joe Gruters,” Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis tweeted on Thursday. “Looking ahead, I know that Florida’s future is bright thanks in large part to your leadership. Ecstatic to work with you to ensure companies can grow and expand their business in the Sunshine State.”

Jack Brill, acting Republican Party of Sarasota County chair, worked for years alongside Gruters at the local level. The success at the national level doesn’t come as a huge surprise to him. And he suspects there are few questioning Gruters’ ability to take the party to new heights in the future. “He did his job and he’s incredibly popular with the committeemen,” Brill said.

There’s a record of success Gruters has demonstrated for years in Sarasota even when many questioned the path forward.

He worked for Rep. Vern Buchanan‘s 2006 as a field director, when the Sarasota Republican Congressman ended up winning by just 369 votes. Then Gruters moved into the campaign manager seat in 2008 when Buchanan beat the same opponent by more than 18 points. He took over as Sarasota County chair weeks after after a Presidential election where Barack Obama came within 211 votes of winning the county, as close as any Presidential candidate since Harry Truman has come there. Trump on Tuesday won the county by 28,173 in a Sarasota reshaped as a renewed red county after years of Gruters leadership.

“He’s a warrior,” said Max Goodman, a political consultant who worked with Gruters dating back to that 2006 campaign. “He not only survives in battle but ultimately thrives. He’s proved without a shadow of a doubt he can do a great job.”

What happens next? The party chair for the moment is enjoying a much-awaited vacation after winning this battleground state by a comfortable margin while neighboring Georgia heads to a recount.  He’s already thinking of the challenges in the coming legislation, hoping to continue his involvement in commerce and job creation.

“We need to make some decisions regarding COVID-19 and maybe the budget,” he said. “I hope to continue to make the business environment more friendly and to continue to attract companies move here and help existing companies grow. so people can do better for their children. As a CPA, the economy is always my priority. WE need to make sure we have the strongest possible economy, try and improve education and help the environment, which I believe will continue to be the Governor’s main focus.”