Buoyed by a big primary win and the endorsement of President Donald Trump, Florida’s longtime Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, Jr., is very likely to win the upcoming special election to fill the Florida District 1 seat vacated by former Rep. Matt Gaetz.
Odds are that, once he takes his seat in Congress, the seat notably held by one Barry Goldwater, Patronis will quickly make a significant impact in Washington.
Patronis grew up helping to operate the family-owned Capt. Anderson’s Restaurant and Waterfront Market, a Panama City landmark since its founding in 1953. To hone his skills, he earned an associate’s degree in restaurant management from Gulf Coast Community College before heading east to gain his bachelor’s in political science from Florida State University.
During his college years, he served as an intern in the Florida Senate and in the United Kingdom’s House of Commons. In his 20s, Florida Governor Lawton Chiles (a Democrat) appointed him to the Florida Elections Commission, to which he was reappointed by Governor Jeb Bush.
In 2006, Patronis was elected to the Florida House of Representatives, where he served until Governor Rick Scott appointed him to the Florida Public Service Commission in 2015. That four-year term was cut short when Governor Scott elevated him to fill a mid-term vacancy as Chief Financial Officer. In 2018, he was elected to a full term in a hotly contested race in which polls had shown him as the underdog. He was reelected in 2022 by a much wider margin.
As Florida’s CFO, Patronis oversaw the state’s accounting and auditing functions as well as unclaimed property; monitored the investment of state funds; managed the state’s deferred compensation and risk management programs; and served as the state fire marshal.
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Other CFO duties include overseeing insurance consumer service, ensuring that businesses have workers’ compensation coverage in place for employees, and helping injured workers with benefit payments and re-employment.
As a Cabinet member, Patronis was also involved in the purchase of state lands; clemency matters; state bond, trust, and funds management; powerplant and transmission line sitings; law enforcement administration; tax collection; and insurance regulation.
This myriad of responsibilities gives Patronis broad experience that the Speaker of the House can put to good use in committee assignment decisions. It also gives him insight into legislation that many first-termers lack. Possible assignments include Financial Services, Small Business, Budget, and Oversight and Government Reform.
One of Patronis’ early victories as Chief Financial Officer was his work toward passage of the firefighter cancer relief bill to provide protection and financial coverage to firefighters diagnosed with work-related cancers. In his final year as CFO, Patronis highlighted his office’s efforts to aid storm victims, protect taxpayer dollars, and support first responders.
Patronis noted that the unclaimed property division returned $418 million to Florida residents in 2024 alone, bringing total remittances to more than $2.7 billion since he took office in 2017. His management of state investments yielded a net income of $2.25 billion in interest in 2024.
The Department of Financial Services processed more than 176,000 applications for new insurance agents and adjusters in 2024, installed protections for first responders from the dangers of electric vehicle fires, and helped create the Florida Tax Advocate’s office to help Floridians fight back against Internal Revenue Service overreach.
Patronis’s lifelong involvement with the family business for which he is now a partner helped – along with his record as a public servant – win him the endorsement of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB)’s FedPAC. Florida NFIB executive director Bill Herrie said that Patronis “has always been readily accessible to NFIB members and has consistently supported pro-small business policies.”
Before shopping for housing in the wide-open capital area marketplace, Patronis will have to defeat Democrat Gay Valimont and independent candidate Stephen Brody in the April Fools’ Day special election.
Valimont, who lost her race against Matt Gaetz by 32 points last November, has raised millions from national donors hopeful they can “steal” a long-running GOP seat thanks to low turnout in a special election. The last year a Democrat won in the Florida Panhandle was 1992.
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