A Florida school board is poised to demand the ouster of the Moms for Liberty co-founder whose GOP chairman husband has been accused of rape.

The Sarasota County School Board cannot directly remove Bridget Ziegler from the panel, but it is mulling over a resolution requesting she step down.

Board Chair Karen Rose said she is  ‘shocked and deeply saddened’ by the rape allegations involving Ziegler’s husband, Christian Ziegler, and the couple’s admissions about having a three-way sexual encounter previously with the accuser.

‘I personally care about Bridget and her family and deeply regret the necessity for this course of action,’ she wrote in the resolution.

‘But given the intense media scrutiny locally and nationally, her continued presence on the Board would cause irreparably harmful distractions to our critical mission.’

The Sarasota County School Board is due to vote on whether to approve a motion requesting Moms for Liberty founder Bridget Ziegler steps down in light of the rape allegations against her GOP chair husband

 The board cannot remove Bridget Ziegler outright, even though her husband Christian has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman the two had planned to have a ménage-a-trois with

Bridget Ziegler has served on the Sarasota County School Board since 2014, she has previously been its chair and was appointed by former Florida governor Rick Scott

Bridget Zieglerdid not respond to email messages seeking comment about the resignation resolution, which is on the board’s agenda for a Tuesday evening meeting. 

She has served on the board since 2014, when she was appointed by then-Gov. Rick Scott, and has previously been its chair. 

The Sarasota Police Department is investigating a woman’s accusation that Christian Ziegler raped her at her apartment in October. 

Police documents say the Zieglers and the woman had planned a sexual threesome that day, but Bridget Ziegler was unable to make it. 

The accuser says Christian Ziegler arrived anyway and assaulted her, according to the documents.

Christian Ziegler has not been charged with any crime and maintains his innocence, contending the encounter was consensual. 

Scott, Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Florida Republicans have called on him to step down as Republican chair, but he has refused to do so.

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.’

The school board’s  Chair Karen Rose said she was ‘shocked and saddened’ to hear of the allegations against the couple

Ziegler previously earned the endorsement of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for her Sarasota school board seat 

Her GOP chairman husband admitted to having sex with the unnamed accuser, according to an affidavit, but insisted that it was consensual

His lawyer, Derek Byrd, said in an email Monday he is ‘hoping (the) investigation is closed soon.’ 

A Sarasota Police Department spokesperson said there is no timetable for the probe to conclude.

Bridget Ziegler has long been active in conservative politics. She was a champion of the DeSantis-backed law known by critics as ‘Don’t Say Gay,’ which restricts 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.

In addition, DeSantis appointed Bridget Ziegler to the new Central Florida Tourism Oversight District that oversees Walt Disney World’s operations. 

That panel – which replaced one controlled by Disney – was created by the Legislature at DeSantis’ request after Disney objected to the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law. 

The board currently is the subject of state and federal lawsuits over control of the huge theme park outside Orlando.

There have been calls for her to step down from her position and it already appears that she has walked away from the conservative Leadership Institute after her profile on the website was scrubbed.

 The resolution is set for the school board’s agenda at a meeting on Tuesday evening

DeSantis and other Republicans have since called for Ziegler’s husband, 40-year-old Christian, to step down from his own role as Florida Republican chairman amid the rape accusations 

The Pennsylvania chapter of Moms for Liberty broke away from the national organization this week, citing the fallout from the sex scandal. 

Democrats and other critics say the Zieglers are hypocritical because the alleged sexual activities are completely at odds with the conservative views they push on others, particularly LGBTQ people.

‘The Zieglers have made a habit out of attacking anything they perceive as going against `family values,´ be it reproductive rights or the existence of LGBTQ+ Floridians,’ state Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said in a statement. ‘The level of hypocrisy in this situation is stunning.’

The state GOP has called a meeting for Sunday in Orlando to discuss Christian Ziegler’s future as party chair.

It comes amid a criminal probe into his behavior. According to an affidavit, the 40-year-old contacted one of his female friends about having a threesome with him and his wife on October 2.

After learning that Bridget Ziegler wouldn’t take part, the woman texted Christian: ‘Sorry I was mostly in for her.’ She asserts that the chairman showed up at her home anyway and assaulted her.