A former high school student in Florida has called for the co-founder of the conservative campaign group Moms For Liberty to resign from the school board – not because she had a threesome, but because she was “terrible” at her job.
Bridget Ziegler, a close ally of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and a strong voice against LGBTQ rights, was forced to attend an agonizing Dec. 12 meeting of the Sarasota County School Board, where she sits.
The board meeting was used to elaborate on allegations that she had a threesome with another woman and her husband and that her husband, the chairman of the Florida Republican Party, was accused of rape.
Since the allegations surfaced, Christian Ziegler has retained his post as GOP chairman but has been stripped of his salary and authority.
The Republican heavyweight's wife sat stone-faced throughout the school board meeting and was confronted by Zander Moricz, a former class president at Pine View School who is now at Harvard.
Bridget Ziegler's husband Christian Ziegler, chairman of the Florida Republican Party, has been accused of raping a woman with whom the couple allegedly had a “ménage a trois.”
Bridget sits stone-faced during the Dec. 12 Sarasota County School Board meeting
Zander Moricz, a former class representative at Pine View School, called for her resignation from the board “because you are terrible at your job, not because you had a threesome.”
Moricz, who is gay, said Ziegler had to resign because she was not qualified for the job as a school board member.
“Bridget, our first interaction ever was when you retweeted a hate article against me from the Nationalist when I was a student in Sarasota County,” Moricz said.
“You don’t deserve to be on the Sarasota County School Board, but you also don’t deserve to be kicked out of it because of a threesome.”
“This belies the lesson we wanted to teach you, which is that a politician’s job is to serve their community, not to police their private life.”
“Bridget, you deserve to be fired from your job because you're terrible at your job. Not because you had a threesome.”
Moricz, who now runs a nonprofit aimed at encouraging young people to get involved in politics, is a plaintiff in the Don't Say Gay lawsuit against DeSantis and the state of Florida.
Ziegler was instrumental in drafting the “Don't Say Gay” law, which prevents the discussion of LGBTQ issues from kindergarten through third grade and only to a limited extent with older students. Critics like Moricz say it is an attempt to erase gay people from society.
In 2022, Moricz accused his school's administrators of censorship after he was told not to reference his activism or sexuality in his graduation speech.
In his speech, he referred to sexuality with the euphemism “curly hair.”
At the Dec. 12 meeting, the school board voted to recommend Ziegler's removal — but the vote was nonbinding.
The video reportedly shows Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget and an unidentified woman
On December 12th, demonstrators can be seen demanding the resignation of Bridget Ziegler
The board voted to resign Bridget Ziegler, but the vote was not binding
Activists protest outside the school board meeting on December 12th
DeSantis was able to force her to leave school, but the school board stopped short of writing to him demanding her removal.
Her husband, meanwhile, faces possible ejection from office at a Jan. 8 meeting in Tallahassee. On December 17, he was censured by the party.
The incident, which according to the police report took place at a home in Sarasota, was reported to police in early October.
The accuser, who has known Ziegler for 20 years, told police that when Bridget backed out of the plan to have sex, she texted Christian saying, “I'm sorry I'm mostly targeting her.” was,” it says in an affidavit.
Later that evening, the woman claims that as she was leaving her apartment, she spotted Ziegler outside in the hallway – and claims he then entered her property and raped her.
Weeks later, investigators began monitoring calls and messages Christian Ziegler sent to the accuser, the affidavit said.
'Where are you? Do you want to meet and chat? Worried about you. “You are my friend,” Ziegler allegedly wrote in a message via Instagram.
“Hell no, not after what you did to me,” the woman replied. “Don’t you understand that I’m afraid of you?”
Moricz is taking legal action against Ron DeSantis over the “Don't Say Gay” law
Bridget previously received the endorsement of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for her seat on the Sarasota school board. He has since encouraged her husband to resign amid the sex scandal
A 911 call from a friend of the alleged victim, obtained by the Florida Center for Government Accountability, shows that she confided in the friend about the rape.
“She told me she was raped,” the friend told the dispatcher on Oct. 4.
“She says she's afraid that the person who raped her came to her house, so she's afraid to leave the house… I'm worried about her right now,” the friend explained.
In text and phone conversations monitored by investigators, Ziegler offered the woman “financial help” before becoming suspicious that they were being recorded.
Ziegler's attorney, Derek Byrd, said in a statement: “We note the reports that the Sarasota Police Department is conducting an investigation into Mr. Ziegler.”
He said his client had been “completely cooperative” with police.
“We are confident that once the police investigation is completed, no charges will be filed and Mr. Ziegler will be fully exonerated.”
Bridget Ziegler has not commented on the threesome or the allegations against her husband.