TAMPA,Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis named state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia to be the state’s new Chief Financial Officer, a post that had been vacant since former-CFO Jimmy Patronis stepped down earlier this year to run for a seat in Congress.
Ingoglia won the District 11 seat in the Florida Senate in 2022 after serving in the Florida House from 2014 to 2022. He represents Citrus, Hernando and Sumter counties, and part of Pasco County.
Ingoglia was notably the architect of Senate Bill 1718 in 2023, which invalidated drivers licenses issued by other states to immigrants in the country illegally; forced hospitals receiving Medicaid funding from the state to collect data on the immigration status of patients; punished businesses employing unauthorized immigrants; required the use of E-Verify by companies to ensure their employees are legally able to work in the United States; and made it a felony to transport a person in the state of Florida who entered the country illegally, among other things.
The bill was signed into law by DeSantis in May 2023.
Now that the CFO position has been filled, the DeSantis’ administration still has a key vacancy — former Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nunez left her position to take the job of president at Florida International University in early 2025.
The lieutenant governor’s office remains unfilled, but another state senator, Jay Collins, has been among the names floated to fill the seat.