Blaise Ingoglia

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Blaise Ingoglia
Blaise Ingoglia.jpg
Chair of the Florida Republican Party
In office
January 17, 2015 – January 12, 2019
Preceded byLeslie Dougher
Succeeded byJoe Gruters
Member of the Florida House of Representatives
from the 35th district
Assumed office
November 4, 2014
Preceded byRob Schenck
Personal details
Born (1970-11-04) November 4, 1970 (age 51)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
EducationCity University of New York,
Queens
City University of New York,
Brooklyn

Blaise Ingoglia (born November 4, 1970) is a Republican politician who currently serves as a member of the Florida House of Representatives, representing the 35th District, which includes Spring Hill and Brooksville in Hernando County, since 2014. Ingoglia also served as the chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, a position he had held since 2015.

History[]

Ingoglia was born in Queens in New York City, and attended Queens College, studying economics and accounting, and Brooklyn College, studying biology, but he did not graduate. In 1996, he moved to Spring Hill, Florida and started the companies America One Mortgage and Hartland Homes. He ran for office 2008, spending nearly fifty thousand dollars of his own money "to unseat the career, big-government, tax-and-spend county commissioners from office that refused to offer property tax relief," an effort that was ultimately successful.[1] Ingoglia was elected as the Chairman of the Hernando County Republican Executive Committee in 2009, and then was elected the Vice-Chairman of the Republican Party of Florida in 2011.[2] In 2016 Ingoglia stepped down as Chairman of the Hernando County Republican Party when he was elected State Committeeman for Hernando County. [3]

Florida House of Representatives[]

In 2014, incumbent State Representative Robert C. Schenck was unable to seek re-election due to term limits, so Ingoglia ran to succeed him. He won the Republican primary unopposed, and faced Democratic nominee Rose Rocco, a former Hernando County Commissioner, and independent candidates James Scavetta and Hamilton R. Hanson in the general election.[1] Ultimately, Ingoglia defeated his opponents by a wide margin, winning 51% of the vote to Rocco's 42%, Scavetta's 4%, and Hanson's 3%.

Following his election to the legislature, Ingoglia announced that he would seek election as the Chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, and successfully challenged and defeated the incumbent Chairwoman, Leslie Dougher.[4]

After Donald Trump lost the 2020 election and refused to concede while making false claims of fraud, Ingoglia and other Republicans proposed changes to restrict voting rights in Florida. The proposed changes to restrict mail-in voting were notable given that Republicans had traditionally voted by mail more than Democrats, but Democrats outvoted Republicans by mail in 2020. There was no evidence of widespread fraud in U.S. elections or in Florida elections. Asked about cases of voter fraud, Ingoglia said "I don’t know, but I’m sure it was going on. Just the fact that they weren’t caught doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s not happening."[5]

Ingoglia also proposed legislation that prohibit technology companies from "deplatforming" political candidates (several social media companies had removed Trump from their platform after he used the platforms to spread falsehoods about the 2020 election and foment violence). Ingoglia made an exemption for Disney, which runs a theme park in Florida.[6][7]

References[]

  1. ^ a b Bates, Michael D. (October 18, 2014). "Four to vite for state House in District 35". Hernando Today. Archived from the original on December 13, 2014. Retrieved December 11, 2014.
  2. ^ Marrero, Tony (May 8, 2013). "State Republican Party official Blaise Ingoglia will run for state House seat in Hernando". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved December 11, 2014.
  3. ^ Behrendt, Barbara (August 30, 2016). "Ingoglia wins race for Republican committeeman in Hernando". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved January 2, 2017.
  4. ^ Henderson, Jeff (December 3, 2014). "After 2014 GOP Wins, Leslie Dougher has to Fight to Keep Her Job". Sunshine State News. Archived from the original on December 13, 2014. Retrieved December 11, 2014.
  5. ^ Mazzei, Patricia; Corasaniti, Nick (2021-04-30). "Florida Republicans Pass Voting Limits in Broad Elections Bill". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-04-30.
  6. ^ Lee, Timothy B. (2021-04-30). "Disney gets special "theme park" exception to Florida's anti-tech bill". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2021-05-03.
  7. ^ "Florida plans to fine social media for banning politicians". BBC News. 2021-05-01. Retrieved 2021-05-03.

External links[]

Media related to Blaise Ingoglia at Wikimedia Commons

Party political offices
Preceded by Chair of the Florida Republican Party
2015–2019 		Succeeded by
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