Senator Joe Gruters Contact information

Joe Gruters was born on June 7, 1977, in Tampa, Florida, U.S. He is a member of the Republican Party representing the 22nd District and is married to Sydney Gruters. He received his education from Florida State University (BS) and the University of South Florida (MBA).

Gruters has had a long and influential career in politics. He served as the Chairman of the Florida Republican Party from 2018 to 2022. He is currently a member of the Florida Senate, representing the 22nd District, which consists of Sarasota County and part of Charlotte County. Before this, he was a member of the Florida House of Representatives.

Earlier in his career, Gruters worked on the campaign of U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan as campaign manager and was vice chairman of the Republican Party of Florida and chairman of the Republican Party of Sarasota. He lost his first two elections and worked behind the scenes on several more losing campaigns. However, he joined Vern Buchanan’s original successful 2006 campaign for Congress. Gruters subsequently was chairman of the Republican Party of Sarasota for ten years, longer than any of his predecessors.

Gruters gained political influence as an early supporter of Rick Scott during his successful 2010 campaign for governor of Florida. Gruters’ support earned him a high-profile appointment to the Florida State University Board of Trustees. He became vice chairman of the Republican Party of Florida in 2015, and had strong political backers when he ran for the Florida House of Representatives’ seat in 2016.

Gruters is one of Donald Trump’s closest political allies in Florida. An early Trump supporter, Gruters was Florida co-chairman of Trump’s 2016 campaign. Gruters forged a relationship with Donald Trump in 2012 after Republican leaders snubbed the New York celebrity at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida. Trump accepted an invitation from Gruters to invite him to speak in Sarasota the night before the convention.

Gruters was elected to a two-year term as chairman of the Republican Party of Florida on January 11, 2019, at the party’s annual meeting in Orlando, winning a two-year term. He defeated Bob Starr of Charlotte County and succeeded state Representative Blaise Ingoglia. Gruters passed out red “Keep Florida Great” hats ahead of the vote and declared that his “singular focus over the next two years” was winning reelection for Trump. Gruters’s easy election coincides with more internal unity among the Florida Republican Party, which had been divided after a Jim Greer scandal and had suffered internal fractures during the Governor Rick Scott’s terms, when Scott withdrew financial and organization support for the party after Ingoglia had defeated Scott’s preferred candidate.