Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on 16 July appointed Republican state-senator Blaise Ingoglia as the state’s Chief Financial Officer, filling a cabinet vacancy that had been open since former CFO Jimmy Patronis resigned earlier this year to join Congress. Ingoglia will complete the remainder of Patronis’ term and is expected to seek a full four-year mandate in 2026. DeSantis touted Ingoglia as “the most conservative senator in Florida” and said he wanted someone willing to “run into the fire.” At a Tampa news conference, Ingoglia promised to root out wasteful spending, press property-insurance companies to honor claims and apply “conservative fiscal discipline” across the Department of Financial Services, which oversees state payments, insurance regulation and fire investigations. The decision immediately reshapes the 2026 Republican primary for CFO. State Sen. Joe Gruters—already endorsed by former President Donald Trump—enlisted Trump campaign veterans Chris LaCivita and Tony Fabrizio within minutes of the appointment, signalling a high-profile clash between the DeSantis and Trump camps. DeSantis dismissed Gruters as insufficiently conservative, while Gruters’ advisers branded Ingoglia a “Never Trumper.” Ingoglia, 54, is a former chair of the Florida Republican Party, a homebuilder and an internationally ranked poker player with roughly $470,000 in career winnings and a disclosed net worth of about $28 million. His elevation leaves his Senate District 11 seat vacant; Republican Rep. Ralph Massullo quickly entered the special election and secured DeSantis’ endorsement. With Ingoglia’s appointment, DeSantis gains a firmer grip on the three-member Florida Cabinet even as he remains without a lieutenant governor following Jeanette Núñez’s departure in February. The contested CFO race now becomes a proxy test of influence between the governor and the former president in the nation’s largest Republican-controlled state.