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ATLANTA (AP) — Florida conservative Joe Gruters, who has supported Donald Trump since his reality TV days, is now the chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Having no opposition after being tapped by the president, Gruters’ was elected Friday at the Republicans’ summer meeting in Atlanta.

For Gruters, this vote marks his rise from county party leader to a key figure in Trump’s second presidency. For Trump, Gruters’ approval highlights his preference for loyal allies and his shift from a president uninterested in party operations to one eager to control all aspects of power.

Following the vote on Friday, Gruters expressed gratitude to Trump for selecting him and assured RNC members that he would prioritize “election integrity,” increase Republican voter registration, and prevent divisions within the party. According to Gruters, election success is achieved by “the party that unites its factions and brings everyone together.”

Here is a look at Gruters’ history with Trump and Republicans and what that means as he becomes chairman.

Gruters was with his ‘Statesman of the Year’ from the start

Trump’s decade-long dominance in Republican politics includes many former rivals and critics who eventually joined him. Vice President JD Vance once likened Trump to Adolf Hitler, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio called Trump a “con artist” and mocked him.

But Gruters was a true believer years before Trump launched his first campaign in 2015.

“Joe bet on the horse before the track was even built,” said Christian Ziegler, a former Florida Republican chair and friend of Gruters.

In 2012, Gruters led the Sarasota County GOP, and Republicans were nominating Mitt Romney for president at their convention in nearby Tampa, Florida.

Romney, at the time a moderate Republican, had supported Trump despite Trump’s false claims about then-President Barack Obama’s birthplace. Yet, during Romney’s race against Obama, Trump was viewed as a potential liability, and there was uncertainty about his role at the convention. Although Trump was slated as a speaker, a nearby tropical storm compressed the schedule, leading to his exclusion.

Enter Gruters.

The enthusiastic Sarasota native had previously named Trump his county party’s “Statesman of the Year” and hosted a dinner gala at Sarasota’s Ritz-Carlton hotel on the eve of the convention with 1,000 attendees, solidifying a lasting friendship.

Gruters climbed the Florida ladder alongside Trump

Gruters’ support for Trump’s first presidential bid in 2015 stood out in Florida, given that Rubio and former Gov. Jeb Bush also were running.

In October, Gruters became co-chairman of Trump’s Florida campaign. His fellow chair was Susie Wiles, who is now Trump’s White House chief of staff. Bush didn’t make it to the Florida primary, and Trump trounced Rubio, ending the senator’s campaign.

Gruters was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2016 at the same time Trump won Florida’s electoral votes and the presidency. And Wiles, Gruters’ old Trump campaign partner, was the mastermind behind Florida Gov. DeSantis’ narrow 2018 victory.

So when it mattered, Gruters was well-positioned with a friend in the Oval Office and the governor’s office — buoyed by Wiles, who had distinguished herself as a Florida kingmaker.

Gruters navigated nasty party splits and Trump’s election lies

All those powerful allies backed Gruters’ successful bid for Florida GOP chairman in 2019.

Gruters and the party increased GOP registration across the state and helped push battleground Florida to a clearer conservative advantage. In 2020, as Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden flipped Sun Belt battlegrounds Arizona and Georgia, Trump won Florida comfortably.

That helped Gruters navigate Trump’s falsehoods that Biden’s national victory was rigged. Gruters chose his words carefully, stopping short of Trump’s election denialism yet ensuring he never drew the defeated president’s ire. Leaning on local results, Gruters called Florida the “gold standard.” He said there were “questions” about “shenanigans” in other states.

“Florida has been the center of everything,” said current state Chairman Evan Power. “Joe knows the successes and the lessons from Florida — he can bring that to the national level.”

Florida’s rightward shift yielded dominating reelection victories for DeSantis and Rubio in 2022. The win made DeSantis a presumed front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.

A certain Palm Beach resident, however, was not finished.

As Trump built his third campaign, Wiles stuck with him — not DeSantis. The governor ultimately broke with Wiles and Gruters. Then Trump buried DeSantis, just as he’d crushed Bush and Rubio. DeSantis made peace with Trump, but not with Gruters, describing him as recently as last month as having a “linguine spine.”

Gruters reaffirms Trump’s hold on the Republican Party

Trump has cycled through multiple national GOP chairs. Reince Priebus in 2016 was the reluctant Trump backer who became the president’s chief of staff in 2017, only to be fired via social media post. Trump then turned to Ronna Romney McDaniel, Mitt’s niece. He eventually pushed out McDaniel and tapped North Carolina’s Michael Whatley as chairman, with daughter-in-law Lara Trump as family stand-in at party headquarters.

As chairman, Gruters will be a fundraising partner with the White House. The RNC is a key cog in joint party fundraising efforts that the president headlines.

Trump has always been his own primary messenger, but Gruters will be another notable face as the president approaches the 2026 midterms. That doesn’t just mean policy and branding but also the mechanics of elections. Gruters sidestepped Trump’s election denialism, but he’ll now be partly responsible for building teams of lawyers and poll watchers for a president who openly questions the efficacy of U.S. elections.

Beyond the midterms, Gruters will help set the presidential primary calendar, debate rules and other nuts and bolts of the 2028 campaign. While Trump is term-limited by the Constitution, he’s made clear that he will not stay in the shadows as voters choose his successor. With Gruters, he has a direct line into that process.