Fla. GOP chairperson draws rebuke over assault charge

ORLANDO, Fla. — The embattled chairperson of the Republican Party of Florida was censured and stripped of his duties and salary Sunday, decisions that all but ousted him from the party’s top post as he faces a criminal investigation into an accusation that he sexually assaulted a woman.

In an emergency meeting in Orlando, the party’s executive committee stopped short of immediately forcing out Christian Ziegler, the chairperson. But the votes to declare him unfit for office, to remove almost all of his authority, and to reduce his salary to $1 were seen among many party members as the final steps before his potential removal from office.

Ziegler, 40, has been under criminal investigation in Sarasota, Fla., where he lives, since October, when a woman told police that he had sexually assaulted her. He has not been charged and has denied any wrongdoing. He has also refused to resign since the investigation became public last month, despite sustained pressure from Republicans for him to step down.

Republicans have said that they consider the criminal investigation against Ziegler serious and a distraction that would make it untenable for him to raise funds and rally the party going into an important presidential election year.

“The chair of the Republican Party of Florida has to do three things: represent the values of the Republican Party, be able to fund-raise, and be able to support candidates running for office,” said Adam McGill Ross, chairperson of the Republican Party in Pinellas County, who is not on the executive committee. “He can’t do those three things.”

Ziegler told police he had consensual sex Oct. 2 with the woman who accused him of sexual assault, according to a search warrant affidavit. Her name has been redacted from public records. The woman told police that she had a sexual encounter with Ziegler and his wife, Bridget, more than a year ago but that she declined to have sex with Ziegler on Oct. 2 after realizing that his wife would not be joining them. Ziegler then went to the woman’s apartment uninvited and sexually assaulted her, she told police.

Bridget Ziegler is a Sarasota County School Board member and co-founder of right-wing activist group Moms for Liberty, which has pushed for anti-LGBTQ policies in schools. She has faced calls for her own resignation.