Moms for Liberty co-founder rejects Florida School Board’s urging to resign amid scandal
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The Sarasota County School Board formally called on Bridget Ziegler to resign on Tuesday as she grapples with the fallout of an ongoing sex scandal involving her and her husband, Florida GOP Chairman Christian Ziegler.
In a 4-to-1 vote, the school board signed off on a resolution requesting that Bridget Ziegler voluntarily step down from the post that she’s held for nearly a decade. Board Chairwoman Karen Rose, who has long been aligned politically with Ziegler, called the Tuesday vote. Ziegler was the only member to oppose the measure.
The resolution is non-binding — as Ziegler was quick to note on Tuesday — meaning the board cannot force her from her position. She remained on the dais for the remainder of the school board meeting, continuing to participate and vote.
“I am disappointed,” Ziegler said.
Bridget Ziegler’s position on the school board was called into question late last month after news broke that Sarasota police were investigating a woman’s allegation that Christian Ziegler raped her during an encounter in early October. According to a search warrant affidavit, the Zieglers had made plans to have sex with the alleged victim, but once Bridget Ziegler canceled, Chrsitian Ziegler showed up at the woman’s apartment where he allegedly sexually assaulted her.
Christian Ziegler has claimed that the encounter was consensual. No charges have been filed in the case. He has said that he intends to remain in his position as Florida GOP chairman despite calls from top Republicans to step down.
While Bridget Ziegler hasn’t been accused of wrongdoing, she acknowledged to investigators last month that she and Christian Ziegler had been involved in a sexual encounter with the alleged victim over a year ago.
The Zieglers have been active in conservative circles in Florida for years. Bridget Ziegler was appointed to the Sarasota County School Board in 2014 by then-Gov. Rick Scott and has played an integral role in the conservative education movement, especially under Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
She co-founded the conservative group Moms for Liberty in 2021 and has said that she helped draft the DeSantis-backed Parental Rights in Education bill — called “Don’t Say Gay” by critics — which was signed into law last year.
Under Florida law, the only way a school board member can be removed from the position is through voluntary resignation or by first being suspended by the governor and then voted out by the state Senate.
Ahead of the vote on Tuesday, Ziegler expressed frustration over the school board’s decision to bring the measure to a vote. She noted that the scandal did not come up during a recent meeting of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, the governing board that oversees Walt Disney World Resort, which she also sits on.
“As people may know, I serve on another public board and this issue did not come up, and we were able to forge ahead with the business of the board,” she said.
For some Sarasota County residents, however, the school board’s call for Ziegler to resign was justified. One resident who spoke out at the meeting, Julie London, compared Ziegler to former U.S. Rep. George Santos of New York, who was expelled from the House this month over ethics violations.
“She is Sarasota’s George Santos,” London said. “She turned our town into a laughing stock. If Bridget really did listen and really did care, she would resign on her own volition. Her credibility was low to start with. Now there’s none.”
Another speaker, Paulina Testerman, was even more scathing in her remarks, saying that she would relish the downfall of “politicians like [Ziegler] who use our children as a stepping stone in their quest for power and political relevance.”
“If it isn’t the consequences of your own actions,” Testerman said. “Tsk, tsk, tsk. It’s always the ones with the dirty hands that are pointing the fingers.”
