Republicans in Florida strip powers of controversial party chairman
The embattled chairman of Florida’s Republican Party was criticized Sunday and stripped of his duties and pay, decisions that all but ousted him from the party’s top position as he faces a criminal investigation into an allegation that he sexually assaulted a woman.
At an emergency meeting in Orlando, the party’s executive committee failed to immediately fire Christian Ziegler, its chairman. But the votes to declare him unfit, strip him of nearly all his authority and cut his salary to $1 were seen by many party members as the final steps before his possible removal from office.
Mr. Ziegler, 40, has been under criminal investigation since October in Sarasota, Florida, where he lives, when a woman told police he had sexually assaulted her. He has not been charged and denies any wrongdoing. He has also refused to resign since the investigation became public last month, despite continued pressure from Republicans ranging from the governor to county-level chairmen to resign.
Republicans have said they view the criminal investigation against Mr. Ziegler as serious and a distraction that would make it untenable for him to raise money and unify the party heading into a key presidential election year.
“The chairman of the Republican Party of Florida must do three things: represent the values of the Republican Party, be able to raise funds and support candidates running for office,” said Adam McGill Ross, the chairman of the Republican Party. in Pinellas County, who is not a member of the executive committee, said before the meeting. “He can’t do those three things.”
He added: “I don’t understand why he is putting us through this spectacle.”
Mr. Ziegler told police he had consensual sex on 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 Mr. Ziegler and his wife Bridget Ziegler more than a year ago, but that on October 2 she refused to have sex with Mr. Ziegler after realizing his wife would not . join them. Mr. Ziegler then went to the woman’s apartment uninvited and sexually assaulted her, she told police.
Ms. Ziegler is a member of the Sarasota County School Board and co-founder of the right-wing activist group Moms for Liberty, which has pushed for anti-LGBTQ policies in schools. She faced calls for her own dismissal, with critics seizing the fact that she confirmed to police that she had taken part in the previous sexual encounter with the woman as an example of hypocrisy.
Ms. Ziegler has also refused to resign even after the school board voted 4-1 last week urging her to do so. (She cast the only no vote.)
Mr. Ziegler told Moms for Liberty members during a media training at the national conference in Philadelphia this summer to resist asking for forgiveness after the group faced public outcry over a local Indiana chapter quoting Hitler in a newsletter.
“Never apologize. Someday,” said Mr. Ziegler, according to NBC News. “This is my opinion. Other people have different opinions about this. I think apologies make you weak.” (The chapter eventually apologized.)
The Zieglers’ political stars were rising in Florida before the scandal, especially in Sarasota, a hotbed of right-wing activism in the state. Ms. Ziegler campaigned last year with Gov. Ron DeSantis, who later appointed her to a state board that oversaw Disney World.
Mr. Ziegler, a political consultant and former Sarasota County commissioner, was elected leader of the Republican Party in February. He was seen as the candidate to align himself with former President Donald J. Trump, rather than Mr. DeSantis. Mr. DeSantis has called on Mr. Ziegler to resign.
Alain Delaqueriere research contributed.