Christian Ziegler out as Florida GOP Chair

To know Christian Ziegler is not to like him.

The Republican Party of Florida has formally removed Christian Ziegler as Chairman.

The executive committee for the party voted to expel the embattled Chair through a 199-3 vote.

Ultimately, action to remove the Chair came from those who know Ziegler well. Shawn Foster, Pasco County State Committeeman, made the motion. Jack Brill, chairman of the Republican Party of Sarasota, seconded it.

“Let’s hope this is the beginning of the end of this really sad journey we’ve all had to take in the last three months,” Brill said.

Ziegler, who has been embroiled in a sex scandal for months, did not show up for the vote, a difference from a few weeks ago when he pleaded his case to the party’s state executive committee.

Shortly after the vote, the executive committee elected Evan Power, previously the party’s state Vice Chair, as the new Chair. He defeated National Committeeman Peter Feaman.

Ziegler lost his job as Chair less than a year after winning an election over Power.

All this happens as Ziegler remains under active criminal accusation for sexual battery and video voyeurism. A longtime acquaintance accused Ziegler of raping her in a Sarasota apartment on Oct. 2. Ziegler maintained the sex was consensual.

But many say confessionals the Zieglers already made to police will haunt, if not end, any political ambitions for him and his wife, Sarasota County School Board member Bridget Ziegler.

When approached by police about the accusation, court documents indicate Ziegler produced a two-and-a-half-minute video of the encounter he made on his cellphone.

Police have since obtained the video as evidence, and suggested it contradicts key portions of the victim’s account. But the video also raises questions whether he filmed the sex without the woman’s consent.

Meanwhile, the woman told police she scheduled a three-way sexual encounter that day with both Christian and Bridget Ziegler. When Christian Ziegler told her in a digital message that his wife could not attend, she told him not to come over. Surveillance video verifies he showed up minutes later anyway.

Bridget Ziegler, a Sarasota School Board member and co-founder of the conservative Moms for Liberty, confirmed to police she and her husband engaged in a threesome with the woman more than a year prior. She has not been accused of any crime, but the sexual confession drew her directly into the scandal.

To date, Bridget Ziegler has resisted any calls for her own resignation. As an elected official, only Gov. Ron DeSantis can remove her. The Sarasota School Board last month passed a resolution calling for her to step down.

Brill declined to make a comment on Bridget Ziegler’s future. Of note, Christian Ziegler remains state committeeman for Sarasota County, an elected position. “That’s my next project,” Brill said. But notably, Christian Ziegler’s term runs out this summer.

The party has taken heat for waiting more than a month to formally remove CHristian Ziegler as state Chair, but officials said they were hamstrung by procedures and notification requirements.

“I want to reiterate that we’re spending a lot of time and energy on this on this meeting instead of focusing on the thing we need to focus on and that’s simply because Christian Ziegler did not do the right thing and resign,” said state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, a former Republican Party of Florida Chair.

Officials acknowledged the sex scandal forced a “pause” in fundraising for the party. Many stressed Ziegler’s leadership simply was untenable while he remained under investigation and based on the revelations about his personal life.

“I hope he gets exonerated from this from the criminal aspect for him and his children,” said JoAnn DeBartolo, Collier County state committeewoman. “Christian has his own business. I think right now he needs to focus on his main purpose.”

Correction: A previous version of this article misidentified the individual who made a motion to remove.