For two weeks, the three-way sex scandal involving Florida GOP chair Christian Ziegler and his wife has focused unwelcome attention on the Republican party.
Throughout the drama, Ziegler has compared his situation to former President Donald Trump’s controversies and sought a free pass; sent emails declaring he wouldn’t resign because “we have a country to save”; and reportedly requested $2 million to walk away.
Now GOP leadership will hold a closed-door emergency meeting on Sunday to take steps toward ousting the 40-year-old activist and Trump booster.
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Party members who will decide his fate told The Daily Beast that the longer Ziegler digs in his heels, the more Republicans are starting to resent him. “They’re just as offended by the hypocrisy as they are of his unwillingness to step aside,” one GOP official said.
Ziegler is accused of raping a woman who’d previously had a ménage à trois with him and his wife, Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler. He told Sarasota police that the encounter was consensual and that he videotaped the incident, which occurred in early October. (He hasn’t been charged with a crime and denies any wrongdoing.)
The woman’s claims were detailed in a search warrant affidavit, which noted that Bridget Ziegler herself told detectives that she’d once had a threesome with the victim.
As a result of this revelation, public education advocates and LGBTQ families protested Bridget Ziegler’s seat on Sarasota’s school board at its meeting on Tuesday. Critics demanded an apology and her resignation, but she’s provided neither. The Zieglers, one activist fumed, “attacked the LGBTQ community while dabbling in our lifestyle.”
On Thursday, Christian Ziegler denied seeking a hefty severance for his $120,000-a-year gig, but the GOP official told The Daily Beast: “I know of multiple conversations where people have reached out on his behalf and so he might be slicing hairs, saying that he hasn’t asked for it.”
“Let’s be honest,” they said. “He’s comfortable lying. Because he knew about these charges for a long time. And we went through whole meetings, summits, an event at Mar-a-Lago. No one knew. The party got blindsided when it [the rape scandal] broke in the paper.”
“The party members don’t want a buyout,” the person added. “They don’t even think it should be considered because of the reputational damage to the organization. They’re incensed by it.”
Two party officials with knowledge of the situation say Ziegler has very few defenders among the state GOP executive board’s 40 members.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Rick Scott, and even Ziegler’s former boss Congressman Vern Buchanan are calling for his departure. On Friday, Sen. Marco Rubio joined the chorus, tweeting, “The conduct the Florida GOP Chair has now himself admitted to makes it impossible for him to continue in his position.”
Michael Thompson, the Lee County GOP chair who is among the most vocal Ziegler critics, also claims Ziegler did solicit a golden handshake.
“I have been told by several of my colleagues on the executive board that he has requested a buyout through other members trying to broker an agreement to make this go away, which has been met with zero interest,” Thompson said in an email.
Thompson plans to request a statewide party meeting on Jan. 8 to vote on Ziegler’s ouster and elect a new chairman.
One member of the executive board told The Daily Beast that Ziegler likely wouldn’t be removed on Sunday, but officials could potentially vote on launching an investigation into his alleged impropriety, set a trial date and suspend him without pay.
“He’s trying to wait it out,” the person said, adding that Ziegler contacted fellow party members this week to deny the $2 million buyout claim. “But I don’t think the committee is gonna give him that chance.”
“The problem with being party chair is that you’re supposed to help get other people elected. But if you become the story, it kind of puts a black eye on a lot of the socially conservative messaging.
“It’s a career-ender politically, in my opinion,” the member continued. “He’s always going to be the threesome guy.”
Another member said they refused to approve any kind of payoff for Ziegler.
“Christian’s about to learn a very important lesson that a lot of people have learned,” they said. “He’s not Donald Trump and he’s never gonna be Donald Trump.”
After Ziegler’s February election to party chair, Trump took to Truth Social to praise him. “We won a big Chairmanship in Florida over the DeSantis Reps, but actually, it’s a win for ALL,” Trump wrote. “That’s the way we want it. Christian will be a great Chairman!”
State Republican leaders Hunter Peeler and Anthony Bonna sent colleagues a letter on Dec. 8 spelling out Ziegler’s uphill battle in keeping his post—to which he was elected in a 126-100 vote over the now-vice chair Evan Power.
“At a time when our party is working to protect our children from the radical left’s agenda, just the details the Chairman has admitted to undermines and embarrasses our cause,” Peeler and Bonna wrote.
“We pray for Christian, his family, and all involved in this matter. But if he truly believes in conservative principles, he should do the right thing and put the mission first by resigning.”
James Peacock, a GOP committeeman in Jackson County, told The Daily Beast that if the accusations in the police affidavit are true, Ziegler “exercised very poor judgment.” And requesting a multimillion-dollar exit deal, he said, would only further tarnish his reputation.
“I can tell you what,” Peacock said. “We didn’t give him 2 [million] to come in, and I wouldn’t give him 2 to go out. If he puts that forward, that will be another exercise of poor judgment.”
St. Johns County GOP Chairman Blake Paterson called the Ziegler imbroglio “a tragedy” and “an embarrassment.”
“He owns this,” Paterson said. “And just on the basis of filming the stuff—that he needed to resort to his own personal film library collection to prove his innocence speaks everything. It’s proof positive he needs to step down and… take care of his soul and protect his family.”
Ed Shoemaker, a Republican state committeeman for Polk County, said in an email that Ziegler and his wife “have fallen short of the standards we must uphold.”
“Put the rape accusation aside until it is fully investigated and adjudicated,” Shoemaker said. “That still leaves a circumstance of publicly admitted, sexual deviance from two state leaders.”
The Zieglers, he continued, “are leaders and role models in the areas of protection of children and family values, lynch pins of Republican morals, values, and campaign talking points. Is that really your suggestion of who should be leading our party, its campaign efforts, its fundraising, and the presidential election effort?”
Still, two executive board members told The Daily Beast they’re heading into the emergency meeting with an open mind and will listen to what Ziegler has to say.
“I have prayed about it and have not made any final decisions,” said one party official and friend of Ziegler. “But it’s difficult to think that Christian will remain as chairman when this is all over.”
“Life will never be the same for the Zieglers.”
