For a long time, it seemed like Joe Gruters’ political instincts were way off.
The Sarasota native lost his first two elections and then worked behind the scenes on a steady stream of losing campaigns.
“Somehow I always picked the loser,” he recalled recently.
Real estate tycoon Donald Trump, on right, with Sarasota County GOP Chairman Joe Gruters, left, in this May 21 file photo. In October Gruters was named Trump’s Florida campaign chairman. Trump spoke to a about 1,400 people at Van Wezel in May as part of his "Statesman of the Year" Award from the Republican Party of Sarasota. STAFF PHOTO / THOMAS BENDER
That started to change when Gruters joined U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan’s successful 2006 campaign. He has been on a hot streak ever since, winning the job of Sarasota GOP chairman in 2008, gaining clout as an early backer of Gov. Rick Scott in 2010 and becoming vice chairman of the Republican Party of Florida this year.
Gruters’ perseverance and risk taking have paid off in big ways, gaining him a high-profile appointment to the Florida State University board of trustees and important backers as he again seeks a state House seat and positions himself for future races.
Now — at 38 — he is taking another political gamble that offers some of the greatest risks and potential rewards of anything he has attempted so far, hitching his wagon to the political sensation known as Donald J. Trump.
Trump’s latest suggestion that the U.S. temporarily ban all Muslims from entering the country has led to a political firestorm like none other in recent presidential politics. The proposal was harshly condemned by many top Republicans.
It’s not the image most up-and-coming political leaders want to present, but as Trump’s Florida co-chairman, the amiable and ambitious Gruters is inextricably linked to whatever the candidate says. Some are calling for him to disavow the comment or resign from the FSU board.
Yet even as he takes heat for some of Trump’s statements, Gruters also is basking in the adulation of Trump’s many fans and the heightened exposure that comes from a high-profile position in a top presidential campaign. He introduced the candidate at large rallies in Jacksonville and Sarasota, speaking to the biggest crowds of his life.
It’s heady stuff for someone who has long dreamed of playing on the biggest stages in politics, but some believe he is messing with fire in backing such an unpredictable candidate.
Big dreams
The Sarasota region often is considered a bastion for moderate Republicans who are fiscally conservative and more socially liberal on issues such as abortion.
That’s not Gruters, who protested outside abortion clinics with his father as a child and listened to right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh with his mother on the way to high school tennis and swim practices.
Gruters’ large family of conservative Catholics also influenced him beyond ideology.
Long-time friend Josh Taylor said Gruters began seeking leadership roles to stand out in a household with six kids.
“It was probably just competitive to eat breakfast in the morning,” Taylor said. “Nobody’s going to give you anything when you have that many siblings. You have to take what you want.”
Gruters was class president at Sarasota’s Cardinal Mooney High School his junior year. He also was president of the chess club and the Respect Life Club, and he ran the school newspaper. He points to another reason for his ambition: a speech impediment that he eventually shed, but which kept him from properly pronouncing his own name until college.
The “r” sound was difficult. He pronounced his last name like the cheese: Joe Goudas. Kids teased him. He wanted to be known for something else. He also developed a thick skin that helped him weather early political setbacks, including losses in his first two campaigns for a state House seat in his early 20s.
Gruters has been prescient in recent years about the mood of the Republican base and the party’s direction. His upbringing helped him as the party grew more conservative during President Barack Obama’s tenure. But he lost his first election by a wide margin to a well-known Democrat and failed to make it out of crowded GOP primary in his second race.
Looking back, Gruters said he believes the biggest factor in those early defeats wasn’t the fact that he was barely out of high school or that his stridently conservative views may have been a bad fit for the area he was trying to represent at the time, but because he had “no relationships.”
“Relationships are more important than anything else in politics,” he said.
From Buchanan to Trump
Gruters set about making connections with influential people — none more important to his career than Buchanan, who hired him to work in his auto business, tapped him to help run his congressional campaigns and supported his bid to be Sarasota GOP chairman.
As chairman, Gruters helped put Sarasota on the map nationwide in Republican circles by hosting large rallies for a series of big-name GOP leaders. The events, combined with an inclusive style of leadership and congenial personality, helped him win re-election three times.
The biggest criticism came from those concerned about accounting irregularities at the party, which paid a $20,000 fine to the Florida Ethics Commission this year to resolve a complaint. Some party insiders accused Gruters — a certified public accountant — of mismanaging the books, but the Ethics Commission pointed the finger at his treasurer.
By leveraging his relationship with Buchanan, Gruters went from obscurity to one of the best-connected Republicans in the state.
So is Trump his next Buchanan? The guy he believes can take him to the next level?
Gruters even compared Buchanan — a Jeb Bush backer who criticizes Trump as too boastful — to the billionaire business mogul in a 2005 Herald-Tribune interview.
“Vern’s a superstar,” Gruters said. “He’s almost like the Donald Trump of Sarasota.”
Gruters said he’s a fan of “business people who have accomplished something outside of politics.”
But some wonder if he is willing to jump on board with anyone who can further his ambition, regardless of how controversial.
Sarasota County Democratic Party Chairwoman Christine Jennings believes Trump will be a disaster for the Republican Party and Gruters will suffer from the fallout.
“I think he’s hurt himself with this,” she said, calling it “a very, very poor decision” that seems rooted in personal advancement.
St. Petersburg-based media company president and political consultant Peter Schorsch, a self-described moderate Republican, wrote an opinion piece recently calling on Gruters to resign from the FSU board or from the Trump campaign.
“As a member of the Board of Trustees at FSU, Gruters just cannot endorse Trump’s closed-mindedness,” Schorsch wrote. “There are hundreds of Muslim students at FSU whom he would be insulting if he supports Trump’s proposal.”
Gruters is not backing down.
Defending Trump
The chain of events that led Gruters to join Team Trump began in 2012 when he invited Trump to Sarasota to receive the local GOP’s annual “Statesman of the Year” award on the eve of the Republican National Convention in Tampa.
Trump was controversial even then as the most prominent proponent of the “birther” conspiracy theory that Obama was not born in the U.S. He was left off the official lineup of convention speakers.
Gruters gave Trump a microphone and a crowd of more than 1,000 on the night before the convention.
Trump received a second “statesman” award in May, telling a crowd of 1,400 that he planned to make a big announcement soon. The event foreshadowed Trump’s presidential run.
Gruters had delivered for The Donald, twice giving him a venue to get his message out amid big crowds. When the candidate began developing his Florida team, his Sarasota connection seemed an obvious choice.
The opportunity to work on a leading presidential campaign was too good to pass up.
“You could potentially change the direction of the whole world,” Gruters said.
Nothing Trump has said so far has Gruters expressing second thoughts. Asked repeatedly if he supports Trump’s proposal to ban Muslims, he said, “The number one priority for our president is to keep America safe. I know Trump will keep us safe.”
Some top Sarasota Republicans say privately that by aligning so prominently with Trump, Gruters may be alienating the elite donors — most of whom support Bush — he may need for future campaigns.
But former Sarasota GOP Chairman Eric Robinson said he does not believe Gruters’ political prospects will be damaged if Trump continues to push the envelope.
Trump is popular among the Republican base that Gruters needs to win a primary election, which typically decides most higher-level races in GOP-leaning Southwest Florida.
“By and large, when you endorse people, you’re not really held responsible for everything they say” anyway, Robinson said. “He’s taking risks doing this and it has its benefits and drawbacks. Joe evaluates this, and in the past the benefits always outweighed the drawbacks.”
