The Republican National Committee unanimously elected Florida state Sen. Joe Gruters as its new chairman during the party’s summer meeting in Atlanta on Aug. 22, replacing Michael Whatley, who stepped down to pursue a U.S. Senate seat in North Carolina. Gruters ran unopposed after receiving the explicit endorsement of President Donald Trump, further cementing the White House’s influence over the GOP’s national apparatus. Gruters, 48, told members he will remain in the Florida Senate for the rest of his term and will formally suspend his nascent campaign for state chief financial officer next week. A certified public accountant, he most recently served as the RNC’s treasurer and earlier led the Republican Party of Florida from 2019 to 2023. Party strategists credit Gruters with helping flip Florida’s voter-registration edge from a Democratic lead of more than 260,000 in 2018 to a Republican advantage that topped 290,000 by late 2022. He now inherits a committee that reported $84 million in cash on hand at the end of July, compared with the Democratic National Committee’s $14 million, and is tasked with protecting and expanding the GOP’s narrow congressional majorities in the 2026 midterm elections. An early Trump loyalist who co-chaired the former president’s 2016 Florida campaign, Gruters also breaks with many Republican leaders by supporting the legalization of marijuana, a stance that has drawn criticism from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis but did not generate opposition inside the RNC. In a joint statement with Whatley, the new chairman pledged to keep the committee ‘united behind President Trump and the America First agenda’ as it gears up for the next electoral cycle.