SARASOTA, Fla. — The Sarasota School Board has voted to request the resignation of Bridget Ziegler amid rape allegations against her husband.
During the school board meeting on Tuesday, every board member besides Bridget Ziegler voted to request her resignation. The decision does not force Bridget Ziegler, who is a co-founder of the conservative Moms for Liberty group, out of her job, but it recommends she step down from her role.
This comes after an "alternative lifestyle" in police records detailed sexual assault claims against her husband, Christian Ziegler.
The Republican Party of Florida chairman said he had a consensual sexual relationship with a woman who agreed to have sex with him and his wife. But the woman told police that Christian Ziegler raped her when she refused to have sex without Bridget Ziegler present.
Several power brokers within the ranks of Florida's Republican party have also called for Christian Ziegler to step aside from his public position in light of the investigation.
Christian Ziegler has not been charged with any crime and maintains his innocence, contending the encounter was consensual.
In a recent message to Florida Republicans, Christian Ziegler said he would remain as chair "because we have a country to save and I am not going to let false allegations of a crime put that mission on the bench as I wait for this process to wrap up.”
As for his wife, nearly 2,000 people have signed a petition on MoveOn.org calling for Bridget Ziegler to step down from the school board.
She has long been active in conservative politics. She was also a champion of the DeSantis-backed law known by critics as “Don't Say Gay,” which restricts the teaching of sexual and gender material in early school grades. Moms for Liberty, which she co-founded in 2021, aims to inject more conservative viewpoints in schools, restrict transgender rights, battle pandemic mask mandates and remove books they object to from school classrooms and libraries.
10 Tampa Bay's Adaure Achumba and the Associated Press contributed to this report.