DeSantis picks Blaise Ingoglia for CFO over Trump candidate
Florida's CFO position has been vacant for more than half a year after Jimmy Patronis left the seat to run for Congress.
Ingoglia, whom DeSantis called 'the most conservative senator in the state of Florida,' will serve as CFO through 2026, when the seat is up for election.
'I am going to be the conservative pitbull when it comes to spending as your next CFO,' Ingoglia said Wednesday during a news conference in Tampa with the governor.
Florida's chief financial officer makes about $140,000 a year, serves on the state Cabinet and leads the state Department of Financial Services, which oversees financial regulators and investigates insurance fraud.
The CFO signs the state's checks and has the power to audit how people are using state dollars. Both DeSantis and Ingoglia honed in on that power, with Ingoglia saying he intends to scrutinize local government budgets and 'start calling out some of this wasteful spending.'
Ingoglia also said his priorities were working to eliminate property taxes on homesteaded locations, which DeSantis has pushed for. When Ingoglia ran for office in 2013, he had unpaid property taxes of more than $10,000, which he paid off after the Times asked him about the debt.
He also said Wednesday he would focus on housing affordability and insurance.
'If an insurance company does not do what they say they're going to do, and contractually obligated to do, I am going to call you out,' Ingoglia said.
Ingoglia has been in the Legislature since 2014, when he was elected to the Florida House of Representatives.
He was elected to the Senate in 2022 to represent part of Pasco and all of Hernando County after DeSantis endorsed him, effectively shutting down what could have been a competitive Republican primary.
In the Senate and on social media, Ingoglia has been an outspoken DeSantis supporter. He sponsored the DeSantis-proposed immigration bills early this year that legislative leaders bucked.
As DeSantis rattled off Ingoglia's legislative accomplishments, the governor compared him favorably to Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota.
Last year, Trump endorsed Gruters for CFO in 2026, saying that Gruters 'was on the 'Trump Train' before it even left the station.' On Wednesday, Gruters announced that Trump advisers Chris LaCivita and Tony Fabrizio are working on his 2026 CFO bid.
When asked why he would support Ingoglia over the Trump-endorsed Gruters, DeSantis said that Gruters' 'record is contrary to what we've told the voters we would do.'
DeSantis said he had never spoken about the CFO job with Trump.
DeSantis called out Gruters for sponsoring an immigration bill this year that the governor vetoed. He also sponsored the compromise immigration package DeSantis signed into law shortly after.
DeSantis also said Ingoglia was better on Second Amendment issues.
Ingoglia didn't vote for the 2018 post-Parkland bill that instated red flag laws and raised the gun buying age to 21 in Florida, while Gruters did. (Gruters and Ingoglia this past session were both co-sponsors on legislation to reverse the gun buying age provision, which failed to get a hearing.)
Gruters also found himself on the other side of DeSantis this last election, when he supported Amendment 3, a proposal to allow recreational marijuana use.
Trump supported that amendment, but DeSantis leaned on the power of state government to fight against it. The amendment ultimately failed.
Gruters is one of three candidates who have filed to run for chief financial officer in 2026.
The other candidates are Republican Frank William Collige, a public adjuster, and Republican Benjamin Horbowy, who ran unsuccessfully for Florida Senate in 2020.
Ingoglia has not yet filed to run for CFO in 2026.
Former House Rep. Ralph Massullo, R-Lecanto, quickly announced his plan to run for Ingoglia's vacated Senate seat. DeSantis on Wednesday announced his endorsement of Massullo in a post on social media.
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