TAMPA, Fla. – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday held a news conference in Tampa to announce state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-District 11, as his pick to succeed former Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis.
“Certainly we need to have people in office that are going to continue the momentum, that are going to build off this success. We don’t want people that are going to try to undercut that success, we don’t want people that don’t have a record of getting in there and fighting for what’s right, even when it’s difficult. And so with that in mind, I’m pleased today to be able to announce that I am appointing the most conservative senator in the state of Florida — someone that has a very clear record as a warrior for all the things that the voters that elected us, want us to do — to be our next chief financial officer, and that is Sen. Blaise Ingoglia," DeSantis said.
Among what he promised at the lectern, Ingoglia said that he would call out insurance companies that go against their word, that he would cut and/or eliminate “wasteful spending at the local (government) level,” and that property tax reform would make it on the 2026 Florida ballot under his watch.
“We are going to be a proactive office. People call me a conservative pit bull in the Senate. I am going to be the conservative pit bull when it comes to spending,” Ingoglia said.
Today, I was proud to appoint Blaise Ingoglia as Florida’s CFO. I look forward to working with @GovGoneWild as we continue to deliver for the people of Florida. pic.twitter.com/Jis14JMmGg
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) July 16, 2025
DeSantis’ pick is a departure from that of President Donald Trump, who in March 2024 endorsed state Sen. Joe Gruters, R-District 22, as Patronis eyed other political pastures.
According to Florida Politics, former Trump Co-Campaign Manager Chris LaCivita was recruited as a senior strategist for Gruters’ campaign, telling the news outlet that he would work “to defeat any posers that stand in our way.”
“The choice between a MAGA first patriot and a Never-Trumper is never really a choice,” LaCivita said (sic).
DeSantis lambasted Gruters in his remarks Wednesday, accusing him of siding against conservatives on multiple issues including immigration, Second-Amendment rights, “partisan activism” from school boards and more.
Despite how the governor spoke of Trump’s pick, he did not take a position against the president directly. Rather, DeSantis spoke as one working in favor Trump’s agenda regardless of what he had to say about Gruters.
“(Sen. Gruters) was the author and architect of this terrible amnesty bill which would have made everything I’ve done — including Alligator Alcatraz — to help President Trump’s illegal immigration removal agenda illegal in the state of Florida, even protecting our coast with the boats from the Haitians coming in, we wouldn’t have been able to do that," DeSantis claimed. “He also authored legislation that would have put gender ideology as a special class in Florida law — we’ve done the opposite since I’ve been governor — and then when we had the fight over Amendment 3, Joe Gruters sided with the mega weed company Trulieve and was joining with liberal Democrats to try to do it, so his record is contrary to what we’ve told the voters that we would do."
Watch the news conference again in the video player below or by clicking here.
[BELOW: Trump, DeSantis tour ‘Alligator Alcatraz’]