Christian Ziegler ousted as chair of the Florida GOP amid rape accusation

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Christian Ziegler was pushed out as chair of the Republican Party of Florida following weeks of pressure from fellow party members to step down from his high profile position amid an investigation that he raped a woman.

His ouster came during a closed-door gathering of party members in Tallahassee which was followed by a vote to pick vice chair Evan Power as his immediate replacement to lead the party in the nation’s third largest state and home to former President Donald Trump.

Ziegler has maintained that the sexual encounter he had with the woman who leveled the rape accusations against him was consensual. He and his wife, Moms for Liberty cofounder and Sarasota County school board member Bridget Ziegler, also acknowledged to police that they had been in a three-way sexual encounter a year earlier with the alleged victim, per a search warrant affidavit.

The salacious revelation of the three-way opened the couple up to allegations of hypocrisy since both espouse traditional family values. The details fueled calls for both Zieglers to step down from their respective positions and has caused a massive headache for the party, which is trying to organize and fundraise during a presidential election year.

“Christian Ziegler did not do the right thing and resign,” said state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, former chair of the Republican Party, shortly after voting to remove Ziegler. “I believe that there’s been some harm done to the Republican Party of Florida that cannot be overcome without hard work and determination to getting back to what we do well.”

Ziegler has kept a low profile since party members stripped him of his powers and salary on Dec. 17 and he did not attend the party meeting Monday where he was officially removed.

Power has been leading the party during Ziegler’s suspension and announced Dec. 19 that he was running to replace him.

Power, who is from Tallahassee and has been chair of the Leon County Republican Party, was selected by a 135-65 vote over Peter Feaman, a South Florida Republican who had been national committee member for the past 12 years.

After the vote, Power stressed that his top priority was to concentrate on fundraising. And while he acknowledged there has been a “pause” as Republicans pushed to oust Ziegler, he contended the party remained in a prime position heading into the 2024 elections.

“I think it’s a blip on the radar,” Power said. “I don’t think it’s going to be a long term impact. I think you are going to see us win big again in November.”

Ziegler’s removal as chair follows a similar move in Michigan, where state Republicans there over the weekend voted to remove state GOP Chair Kristina Karamo, who was accused of poor fundraising but has refused to resign. In Nevada in December, a state grand jury indicted six Republicans who falsely pledged the state’s electoral votes in 2020 to former President Donald Trump, including the chair of the Nevada GOP Michael McDonald.

Ziegler resisted calls to resign for the last two months, even as Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida legislative leaders, U.S. Sens. Rick Scott and Marco Rubio and U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz urged him to step aside. Former President Donald Trump, who lives in Florida part time, didn’t weigh in on what he thought Ziegler should do. The Zieglers had been among Florida’s political power couples. Bridget Ziegler stepped back from Moms for Liberty in 2021 but she has refused to relinquish her role as board member on the Sarasota School Board despite calls from colleagues to step down.

She also is still a board member of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, the DeSantis-appointed governing body for the area surrounding Walt Disney World. DeSantis and the GOP-supermajority Legislature overhauled the area after the parks entertainment giant objected to a school curriculum law restricting LGBTQ+ instruction in public schools, one critics have called “Don’t Say Gay.”

The Republican Party of Florida has steadily overtaken Democrats in the state since DeSantis took office in both registration numbers and in elected statewide positions. Republicans now have supermajorities in the Legislature and hold every Cabinet position and, as of mid-December, have a nearly 700,000 voter registration advantage over Democrats.

Despite the registration successes, some Republican county leaders who wanted Ziegler out said they’d been frustrated with his lackluster fundraising and worried about losing their grip on the state. They’d already faced internal drama as some members vocally sided with Trump over DeSantis for the 2024 presidential nomination.

In September, top officials in the Republican Party of Florida, under pressure from Trump supporters, voted to remove a provision in its state bylaws that required any candidate seeking to be on the March 19 presidential primary ballot to pledge loyalty to the eventual GOP nominee.