C. Thomas Gallagher III (born February 3, 1944) is an American politician, financier, and insurance agent from the state of Florida and a member of the Republican Party.

Gallagher holds the distinction of having served more years as an elected state official than any other individual in Florida history.

He briefly ran for Governor of Florida in 1982 but dropped out early on after realising that incumbent Democrat Bob Graham would be re-elected.

[6] In 1988, Gallagher ran in a special election for the office of Treasurer, Insurance Commissioner and Fire Marshal of Florida to fill the last two years of the term of Democrat Bill Gunter, who had resigned to run for the U.S. Senate.

Gallagher was unopposed for the Republican nomination and faced Democrat Peter Rudy Wallace, the former Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives in the general election.

This compelled Gallagher to submit his resignation as Commissioner of Education early in 2000 when he began to campaign for the U.S. Senate seat.

[10] Democrat Bill Nelson, who had succeeded Gallagher as Treasurer, Insurance Commissioner and Fire Marshal, also filed his resignation as he joined the Senate race.

He campaigned on his support for the marriage penalty, lowering the cost of drug prescriptions for seniors, increasing spending on social security and abolishing the federal income tax.

[12] He was encouraged to drop out by Governor Bush, Republican Party of Florida Chairman Al Cardenas and others who believed that a divisive and expensive Senate primary would damage the eventual nominee for the general election campaign with Nelson.

As Nelson was resigning, a special election was taking place and following the withdrawal of State Senate President Toni Jennings, the Republicans lacked a top-tier candidate.

State Representative Joe Arnall, who had been in the race for a week after Jennings pulled out, immediately withdrew in favour of Gallagher.

After polls showed that Gallagher was favoured for the Republican nomination and was by far the strongest general election candidate,[14] former State Representative and two-time Treasurer, Insurance Commissioner and Fire Marshal nominee Tim Ireland and State Representative Greg Gay also withdrew from the race, leaving Gallagher unopposed in the Republican primary.

In 2006, Gallagher made his fourth run for governor, facing state Attorney General Charlie Crist in the Republican primary.

Crist was the favorite to win the nomination and won in a landslide, taking almost double the votes of underdog Gallagher: 630,816 (63.98%) to 330,165 (33.49%).