President Trump’s pick to lead the Republican National Committee officially won the chairmanship on Friday at the committee’s summer meeting in Atlanta.
Joe Gruters, a Florida state senator, was running unopposed for the top spot at the R.N.C., the group responsible for helping Republicans organize and win elections. Mr. Trump endorsed Mr. Gruters for the position in July.
Mr. Gruters, 48, will replace Michael Whatley, who was the chairman of the committee during last year’s election cycle but is departing to run for Senate in North Carolina. That election is a top priority for Republicans next year as they aim to defend the seat held by Senator Thom Tillis, who is retiring.
Mr. Gruters has served in the Florida Legislature since 2016. He is a former chair of the Florida Republican Party and currently the R.N.C.’s treasurer. An early backer of Mr. Trump and a close ally of the president, he has clashed with Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who was one of Mr. Trump’s chief rivals in the 2024 presidential primary.
Mr. Gruters’s longtime loyalty to Mr. Trump paid off, with the president quickly endorsing him for the top R.N.C. job and praising him on social media as a “Fierce Advocate for our Movement” and a “MAGA warrior” who “has been with us from the very beginning.”
In a speech after the vote on Friday, Mr. Gruters looked ahead to the elections in 2026 and 2028.
“Today is not about one person, it is about our mission: The midterms are ahead, where we must expand our majority in the House and the Senate and continue electing Republicans nationwide,” he said. “And then we march forward toward the presidential election, where the stakes could not be higher.”
With Republicans in lock step behind Mr. Trump and in control of both chambers of Congress, the R.N.C. is not currently a particularly prominent wing of the party — especially compared with its chaotic Democratic counterpart.
But the committee will play a major role in Republicans’ efforts to maintain majorities in the Senate and House in next year’s midterm elections, and it will help with fund-raising, an area where Republicans have an enormous advantage over Democrats.
Kellen Browning is a Times political reporter based in San Francisco.
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