TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Republicans in Florida had a dominating 2022 midterm, winning nearly every race of consequence up and down the ballot — but that hasn’t stopped Florida Republicans from having a heated race to choose their next chair heading into the 2024 presidential election cycle.
Current Florida GOP Chair Joe Gruters is not seeking reelection after holding the post since 2019, a term that featured an at times icy relationship with Gov. Ron DeSantis, who gets much of the credit for the party’s success since he was first elected in 2018. DeSantis won reelection by a historic 19 percentage points.
Running to fill the post are Christian Ziegler, the party’s current vice chair, and Evan Power, who chairs the Leon County Republican Party and is RPOF’s statewide chair of chairs, overseeing other county-level party leaders. The race has, at times, gotten quietly contentious among party insiders as both candidates build coalitions and try to flex through a series of endorsements ahead of the vote next month. Past political work and quiet questions about loyalty have been used by both sides to build support ahead of the early February vote in Orlando.
National dynamics are also very much in play in the race, in part because many view it as a proxy war between former president and current 2024 White House hopeful Donald Trump and DeSantis, who is expected to also mount a presidential bid.
“I think [Ziegler and Power] are strong conservatives. And in general, the lines might be blurred a bit, but I think you can definitely see some semblance of a proxy war,” state Rep. Alex Andrade (R-Pensacola) said. “I don’t know if it is intentional or not, but you can see it. I wish that stuff didn’t happen — Republicans finding reasons to attack each other.”
While both GOP party candidates are vocal DeSantis supporters, some have seen Ziegler’s work with Trump advisers Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie as a sign he is closer to Trump, who is now a Florida resident. The perception matters because Trump has already announced his 2024 presidential bid while DeSantis is considered very likely to jump in later this year.
Ziegler says none of the chatter around the party chair race is based in reality and is a dynamic floated by his rivals. He says as party chair, it would be his ambition to remain neutral in any primaries and amplify whomever the GOP nominates.
“Obviously we have the two most talked-about Republicans in the country. President Trump is in the race, and Gov. DeSantis might get in the race,” he said. “It’s good for Florida. Engagement and interest turn into energy, which is good for the party.”
Though statewide parties across the country have lost some degree of clout as candidates create their own personal fundraising committees and things have generally become more decentralized, there is still power with the position.
“It is up to the party to organize all the sexy events in an election year,” said Matt Caldwell, a former GOP state representative who is Lee County’s RPOF state committee member. “The little things matter.”
Ziegler says he would focus full time on serving as Florida GOP chair, and a big goal would be to get heavily engaged in more local-level races where sometimes attention and resources are sparse. His wife, Bridget, is a DeSantis-endorsed Sarasota County School Board member, and one of the leading national voices on training and recruiting conservatives to run for school board races.
“On the political side, which is where I come from, school board candidates are tomorrow’s members of Congress,” Christian Ziegler said of focusing on local races to build a political bench. “It’s insane that school boards are not seen as more important.”
Power, who works for a Tallahassee-based consulting and lobbying firm, says the party’s most important function is “turning out voters, building infrastructure and electing the Republican nominee.” He says it’s important to have a full-time party chair to avoid any perceived conflicts.
“I am committed to being a full-time chairman,” Power said. “There can’t be the appearance of conflicts or questions about who the chair is working for.”
Some of the political committees that have paid Power for work run by his boss, Dave Ramba, a prominent Tallahassee attorney and lobbyist, have done jobs for candidates and organizations from both political parties. That includes one that has given nearly $50,000 to the Florida Democratic Party since 2016. Political committees are often used as pass-throughs for campaign contributions, and it is difficult to tell specifically where the money originated and which candidates or causes someone is being paid to work on.
Power says that any money his separate consulting firm was paid from any political committee was to help Republicans.
“I think the entire purpose of our organization is to get Republicans elected, and that should be everyone’s total focus. Period,” Power said.
Power said his work with the committees in question was only for Republicans.
“To the extent I use committees to help campaigns, it has been to help the Republican cause,” he said. “I have done so for Republicans and Republican leadership. Anyone claiming anything otherwise clearly does not know how the finance side of the campaign works or is not really paying attention.”
Ramba told POLITICO that any legal or political work he does for political committees is run through Ramba Law Group, which is separate from the firm Power works for, and any committees run for legislative clients are operated by him directly.
“Evan doesn’t control where the money is donated. The clients do,” he said.
“Christian is desperate to be relevant, and knows he is way behind on the votes,” Ramba said. “If he had any support he would not have bailed as an incumbent for county commission during a red wave in Florida.”
Ziegler, in response, said he decided not to run again after one term as Sarasota County commissioner so he could focus on his wife’s school board race and flipping the Sarasota County School Board for Republicans, which it did during the 2022 midterms.
“By not running for re-election, it allowed me to shift my focus on my wife’s successful school board re-elect, work on the historic flip of our school board from 3-2 liberal to 4-1 conservative, and travel the state to help Governor DeSantis’ historic win,” Ziegler said. “It also frees me up to put all my focus on being all over the state as state chairman, while moonlighting as my daughter’s softball coach.”
Both oppose the reelection of Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel, who has come under fire from many on the GOP’s right flank after a tough 2022 midterm for Republicans nationally. Her reelection has turned into a sort of litmus test in conservative politics.
It has become a wedge issue in the chair’s race after Lake County Republican Party Chair Anthony Sabatini, a former state representative and vocal Trump supporter, got enough votes among party officials to force Gruters to call a special meeting where later this month the party may take a vote of no confidence.
Power signed the petition, and Ziegler did not, even though he has publicly stated he supports Harmeet Dhillon, a California RNC committee member who has become the favorite of many conservatives in the race against McDaniel. He tweeted his public support of Dhillon in December, and says his position on McDaniel is clear.
“I think I've been very clear on my support of Harmeet,” he said. “Our party’s grassroots is ready for a change. Our party’s execution has been lacking, and I think we need to have a different standard moving forward.”
Ziegler said he did not sign Sabatini’s petition for the special meeting because when the two talked, Sabatini already had enough signatures and did not ask him to sign, a contention Sabatini says is not the case.
“I asked him to sign,” Sabatini said. “Not sure why he didn’t, it’s something easy to lead on. Very popular with our grassroots.”
Gruters called the meeting for 9 a.m. on Jan. 20 in his home county of Sarasota. That decision got a skeptical eye from Power and some others in the party, who said it was scheduled intentionally at a time when few could attend. More than half of voting members must be present for a quorum and for a vote to occur, a threshold no one is yet sure will be met. Gruters is considered a McDaniel ally and is running for RNC treasurer.
“Obviously calling a 9 a.m. meeting during the week makes it difficult for many people to show up,” Power said. “I don’t know if there will be a quorum or not. But the party needs a change. Too often red waves that hit Florida are not seen at national level.”
