Florida school board asks Moms for Liberty co-founder to resign amid GOP chair husband’s sex scandal
A Florida school board passed a resolution Tuesday calling for the resignation of one of its members, Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler, amid a rape investigation into her husband, the GOP state chairman.
The Sarasota County School Board cannot oust Bridget Ziegler from the panel but voted 4-1 to recommend that she step down in the fallout from the bombshell sex scandal.
Ziegler, who voted against the bipartisan measure, dismissed it as “toothless” and said she was “disappointed.” She gave no indication that she would resign – and remained on the dais after the vote.
Board Chair Karen Rose, who introduced the resolution against Ziegler, said in an email that she is “shocked and deeply saddened” by the rape allegations targeting her husband, Republican State Chairman Christian Ziegler, and the couple’s admissions about having a threesome previously with the accuser.
“I personally care about Bridget and her family and deeply regret the necessity for this course of action, but given the intense media scrutiny locally and nationally, her continued presence on the Board would cause irreparably harmful distractions to our critical mission,” Rose wrote.
Board member Tim Enos said it is up to Bridget Ziegler to decide whether to step down. Only Florida’s governor can remove a school board member, and only under certain conditions, such as a criminal charge.
“If she continues and doesn’t resign and stays, we have an obligation that we all need to be focused on education,” Enos said. “The politics have to get outside the boardroom. It should be only about the kids.”
Bridget Ziegler is co-founder of the conservative parental rights group Moms for Liberty. She has served on the board since 2014, when she was appointed by then-Republican Gov. Rick Scott, and has previously been its chair.
Before Tuesday’s board meeting, several dozen protesters marched outside carrying signs saying “Ban Bridget, not books”, and chanting, “Hey hey, ho ho, Bridget Ziegler has got to go.”
“Bridget Ziegler must apologize and resign,” said Carol Lerner, of Support Our Schools, a nonprofit group that supports public education. “The Zieglers are through and through grifters.”
The Sarasota Police Department is investigating a woman’s claim that Christian Ziegler raped her at her apartment in early October.
The Zieglers and the woman, described as Christian Ziegler’s friend of 20 years, had planned a three-way sexual encounter that day, but Bridget was unable to make it, according to documents.
The accuser said Christian Ziegler showed up at her home anyway, bent her over a bar and raped her.
Ziegler also allegedly filmed himself engaging in the sex act with his accuser, according to a news report and a police affidavit.
The graphic video allegedly showed the woman “bent over a piece of furniture in the bedroom,” reported the Florida Trident. She reportedly could be heard telling the Florida GOP chairman to “climax in her mouth rather than on her new shirt.”
The state GOP chairman has maintained that the encounter was consensual. He has not been charged with any crime so far.
Scott, now a US senator, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida House Speaker Paul Renner (R), Florida Senate President Kathleen Passidomo (R) and the Pinellas County GOP have called on Christian Ziegler to step down, but he has refused.
In a recent message to Florida Republicans, Ziegler said he would stay on as chair “because we have a country to save and I am not going to let false allegations of a crime put that mission on the bench as I wait for this process to wrap up.”
The Zieglers have been labeled hypocrites by their critics on the left, considering that they have long portrayed themselves as champions of traditional family values.
Bridget Ziegler was a staunch supporter of the DeSantis-backed law commonly known as “Don’t Say Gay,” which bans teaching of sexual and gender material in early school grades.
Moms for Liberty, which she co-founded in 2021, is dedicated to pushing conservative policies in schools, restricting transgender rights and purging books the group objects to from school classrooms and libraries.
“The Zieglers have made a habit out of attacking anything they perceive as going against ‘family values,’ be it reproductive rights or the existence of LGBTQ+ Floridians,” state Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said in a statement. “The level of hypocrisy in this situation is stunning.”
The Republican Party of Florida has called an emergency meeting for Sunday in Orlando where a vote on whether to force Ziegler out as chairman is expected to be held.
With Post wires