Republican National Committeewoman Kathleen King recalls first meeting Joe Gruters as a twenty-something campaign staffer.

Two decades later, King stood on stage in Atlanta to make the final nomination for Gruters to chair the national party .

“It’s pretty neat. It’s incredible,” she said. “But we’ve worked hard for it.”

She noted Gruters first ran for office around age 20, then making an unsuccessful challenge against Democratic state Rep. Shirley Brown when Democrats largely ran Florida. She met Gruters when he served as campaign treasurer for now-U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan’s first race for Congress, a contest the Republican won by just 369 votes.

King then served as Chair of the Manatee County Republican Party, and Gruters would within a couple years be Chair of the Rep

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