Bridget Ziegler

Bridget Anne Ziegler ( McGrath; born July 23, 1982) is an American politician who is on the school board for Sarasota County, Florida. She is a conservative education activist and a co-founder of Moms for Liberty.

Early life and career

Bridget McGrath was born in Schaumburg, Illinois to Eileen Marie and Kevin Norman McGrath as the youngest of three children, and raised in Wheaton, Illinois and Fort Gratiot, Michigan. She attended classes at two junior colleges and a state university, but left to begin selling fashionable handbags and later, insurance. She became politically active after marriage to Republican politician Christian Ziegler and changing her political affiliation as a registered Democrat to Republican after she began dating him around 2010.

In June 2014, Governor Rick Scott appointed Ziegler to fill a vacancy on the Sarasota County School Board. She was elected to a four-year term in November 2014 and reelected in 2018 and 2022. Her candidacy was endorsed by Governor Ron DeSantis.

Ziegler co-founded Moms for Liberty in 2021, but left the organization later that year. When the Southern Poverty Law Center labeled Moms for Liberty as an "anti-government extremist group", Ziegler described the label as "reckless".

Following the 2022 election, the Sarasota County School Board shifted from a 3–2 liberal-leaning majority to a 4–1 conservative super-majority and several controversies ensued.

In September 2022, Ziegler accepted a position with the Leadership Institute. In December 2023, at their request, she resigned from the Leadership Institute because of details she revealed during the investigation resulting from allegations of sexual assault by her husband that were made by a woman who had engaged in a three-way sexual relationship with the Zieglers.

Political positions

Ziegler has criticized Black Lives Matter "and how it was taught in schools", according to Bloomberg, "and she has promoted unscientific ideas around trends in trans youth". During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ziegler advocated against mask mandates in Sarasota County schools. Ziegler has fought against the teaching of critical race theory and LGBTQ inclusivity.

Alongside her husband, Ziegler has been held as an example of increasing political tension and polarization.
Ziegler was a major backer of the controversial Parental Rights in Education Act. The law builds on the 2021 "Parents' Bill of Rights", which Ziegler helped draft in 2019. As a result of the DeSantis feud with Disney, Ziegler was appointed by DeSantis to the board of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District created to take oversight of the district away from Disney.

Ziegler has been accused of hypocrisy, dishonesty, and lacking moral integrity regarding her views on sexual morality. The Sarasota County School Board called upon Ziegler to resign in a 4-to-1 non-binding vote (hers being the one vote opposing the motion), but she refused to resign. Only DeSantis, acting in his capacity as governor of Florida, may remove her from the boards.

Personal life

Ziegler moved to Sarasota, Florida, in 2010, where her parents had retired. She met Christian Ziegler and they married. They have three children, who attend private schools in Sarasota.

A Sarasota police investigation following an accusation of rape and sexual assault against Christian Ziegler that was filed during October 2023 by a participant in a threesome that included both Zieglers, was reported by media across the country on November 30, 2023. When questioned, Bridget Ziegler admitted to the threesome sexual relationship involving her husband and another woman. On December 22, news reports stated that police had recovered a sex tape of Ziegler and an unnamed woman. On January 19, the Sarasota police said that they had closed their investigation of sexual assault charges against Christian, but the charge of having made a video of their sexual encounter without permission from his sexual partner remained. Additional details were revealed during examination of digital records and the investigation was turned over to the office of the State Attorney for review. The details included a statement by her husband that contradicted her assertion of only one threesome with the woman who filed the complaint and that the woman appeared on a list of women he entitled on his phone as, "The List". The state attorney did not proceed with an indictment, stating that the evidence was not conclusive enough to expect a successful prosecution.

Following a request for public documents related to the investigation, on May 17, 2024, the Zieglers were in court requesting that the public records from the investigation be withheld, even asking that they be destroyed. One record mentioned during the hearing by a clerk describing the public records, referred to a document in which Bridget crudely advised her husband not to return without success from a regular expedition to local bars with the intent to identify women they both would have interest in approaching to recruit as their threesome partners, texting: "don't come home until your dick is wet".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ziegler, Bridget
1982 births
Politicians from Sarasota, Florida
Florida Republicans
School board members in Florida
Living people
21st-century American women politicians
Women in Florida politics
People from Schaumburg, Illinois
People from Wheaton, Illinois
American women founders