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With a critical election cycle ahead, Florida Republicans are pushing for the resignation of state GOP Chairman Christian Ziegler, who is facing a criminal investigation into allegations of sexual battery, including rape.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, Florida House Speaker Paul Renner and Florida Senate President Kathleen Passidomo are among the leading Republican voices in the state who have called on Ziegler to step down. All three members of the Florida Cabinet have also backed booting Ziegler.
"The mission has to come first," DeSantis said Tuesday, after already calling for Ziegler's resignation last week. "It is not helpful to the mission to have this hanging over his head."
Ziegler, who has not been charged in the matter, has denied any wrongdoing and has so far resisted calls for his resignation. According to The New York Times, he told Florida GOP members in an email Saturday, “[W]e 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.”
Florida Republicans have been rankled by both the criminal investigation and the nature of the allegations against Ziegler. According to a search warrant affidavit shared with NBC News, a longtime friend of Ziegler told Sarasota police that she'd agreed to a sexual encounter with Ziegler and his wife on Oct. 2 but canceled when the wife backed out. (Ziegler's wife is Bridget Ziegler, a Sarasota County School Board member and a co-founder of Moms for Liberty, though she has since left the group.)
The woman alleged that Christian Ziegler came to her apartment after she canceled their rendezvous and raped her, NBC News reported, citing the affidavit.
According to the affidavit, Christian Ziegler told police that they had consensual sex, NBC News reported. His wife, who has not been accused of wrongdoing, told police that she and her husband had a sexual encounter with the woman more than a year ago, the affidavit reportedly stated.
Christian Ziegler's attorney said last week he was confident that “no charges will be filed and Mr. Ziegler will be completely exonerated.”
Lake County GOP Chair Anthony Sabatini, a former state representative who is running for Congress, said Christian Ziegler should resign "based upon what has been admitted to by both him and his wife under oath in the affidavits." The rape allegation "is a separate issue," he told NBC News.
At least two prominent Florida Republicans have been hesitant to join the chorus of GOP members calling for Christian Ziegler's resignation.
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio told The Messenger: "I don’t think just because somebody accuses you that can be the reason why people have to resign from office because then you’re going to have people going around accusing people of things. But the police are investigating it. And if it comes out that there’s real legitimacy to this, particularly the rape charge, then I can’t imagine how he can continue.”
And U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz — who is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee over a range of allegations, including sex trafficking — struck a similar tone of caution. (Gaetz has denied the allegations. The Justice Department did not charge him after its investigation into allegations of sex trafficking against him.)
"Given my experience I tend to wait for the facts to come out before rendering judgment," Gaetz told Florida Politics.