Trump's man in Florida gets pumped for 2020

Joe Gruters relishes his disruptor role in local and state politics, where he’s mostly been behind the scenes. His influence on a vast array of topics is likely to grow — quickly.

By Mark Gordon
| 6:00 a.m. March 1, 2019
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MARK WEMPLE. Joe Gruters has two new titles in Sarasota and Florida politics: chairman of the Republican Party of Florida and recently elected state senator.

Florida

The political life of Joe Gruters began around the time he was 13, when his mom, Robin Gruters, drove him to swim practice. It wasn’t the grunge music of the early 1990s jamming on the radio, but instead, the booming voice of conservative political personality Rush Limbaugh.

Then, while in ninth grade at Cardinal Mooney High School in 1992, Gruters scored 10 bonus points in World History for going to an event for vice presidential candidate Dan Quayle. “It was like a rock star, with crazy loud people screaming,” says Gruters of the Island Park pep rally. “The rest is history. I got bit by the political bug.”