TALLAHASSEE — In the biggest shakeup at the Republican Party of Florida in more than a decade, board members voted Monday to oust party chair Christian Ziegler, who’s been accused of raping a woman that he and his wife had previously engaged in a three-way sexual encounter.

The party leaders then voted to replace him with state GOP Vice Chair Evan Power, who lost to Ziegler for the top post a year ago.

Ziegler’s removal, done by a voice vote, was expected since the GOP executive committee unanimously stripped him of his duties, demanded he resign and reduced his pay to $1 on Dec. 17 in Orlando.

With the high-stakes presidential election and U.S. Senate and House seats coming up this year, officials said felt it was time to establish new leadership.

“Christian Ziegler has got to go. We’ve got to start the healing process. You can’t raise money in the party if you’ve got that much dysfunctional leadership,” CFO Jimmy Patronis said before the meeting.

An estimated 200 GOP members attended the closed-door meeting at the Tallahassee Conference Center. Only a few were opposed to dismissal.

Power won with 67% of the vote, 135-65.

He said he was eager to take the helm after months of uncertainty.

“There was a pause in what the party was doing because of that uncertainty,” Power said. “It’s not anything that’s going to have a long-term impact.”

Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, a former chair of the Florida GOP, said he’s known Power a long time and looked forward to “working with him as much as I can to get the party back on track.”

“There has been some harm done to the Republican Party of Florida that cannot be overcome without hard work,” Ingoglia said.

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republicans had called for his resignation, but Ziegler refused to do so, maintaining his innocence.

Power was up against attorney Peter Feaman, the National Committee chair for the state party for the last 12 years, and got a boost with an endorsement from DeSantis, who is fighting to hold onto second place in the Iowa caucuses to be held on Jan. 15.

Ziegler, 40, was a rising star in the GOP when an affidavit obtained by The Trident confirmed that police were investigating a claim that a woman who had previous sexual encounters with Ziegler and his wife had sexually assaulted her during a separate encounter.

Police said they discovered video footage of an October sexual encounter with the Zieglers that the victim claimed to have not consented to have recorded, which would be a violation of the state’s video voyeurism law. That, too, is under investigation. Ziegler has not been charged with any crime.

His wife is Bridget Ziegler, 41, a Sarasota County School Board member and co-founder of the Moms for Liberty, which has pushed for the removal of books with LGBTQ themes.

The Sarasota County School Board voted 4-1 to request her to resign, but she refused. The board has no power to remove her.

She also is one of five people DeSantis appointed to replace the Disney-connected Reedy Creek Special Improvement District with his own supporters on the newly created Central Florida Tourism Oversight Board.

Democrats have called the Zieglers hypocritical for embracing anti-LGBTQ views and yet appearing to participate in three-way sexual encounters.

The last major shakeup in the state Republican party came to a head in 2010 when party chair Jim Greer was indicted on fraud, theft and money laundering charges related to the party’s fundraising practices.