Governor Ron DeSantis has finally announced who he is appointing to become Florida’s next CFO.
The job of chief financial officer has been vacant since Jimmy Patronis left the position as he ran and was elected to Congress earlier this year. After waiting four months, DeSantis announced his appointee to fill the role at a press conference in Tampa.
“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 Senator Blaze Ingoglia,” he said.
Ingoglia has been one of DeSantis’ closest allies in the legislature. He’s one of the few Republican lawmakers this session to back almost every issue DeSantis championed.
At the announcement, Ingoglia pledged to take up one of DeSantis’ policy priorities over the next year: Property tax reductions.
“I am going to work hand and glove side by side with this governor to make sure that we get rid of property taxes on homestead exemption and offer real property tax relief to the people of the state of Florida,” he said.
DeSantis also said during the presser Ingoglia will take the helm on his Florida DOGE efforts, looking to cut what the governor calls wasteful spending at the local government level.
“He's going to have the authority to go in and audit all those local governments and really hold them accountable, in addition to everything that we do,” he said.
DeSantis’ decision comes after President Donald Trump has already endorsed Republican state Senator Joe Gruters for the job, which will come up for election in 2026.
DeSantis said he didn’t tap Gruters because he wanted to pass an immigration enforcement bill that would have stripped some powers from the governor, among other spats the two politicians have had over the past several months.
“If George Washington rose from the dead and came back and tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘Will you appoint Joe Gruters CFO?’ my response would be, no, I can't do that without betraying the voters that elected me to lead the state in a conservative direction,” he said.
Usually, state CFO races draw few eyeballs, especially since Floridians are focused on electing their next governor at the same time. An intense Gruters versus Ingoglia Republican primary next year may change that.