Republican groups spend millions to salvage Miller's Ohio seat amid abuse claims

Trump shifts from summer doubts to backing Miller in final stretch

ASHLAND, Ohio — Republican organizations are pouring money into the final weeks of Rep. Max Miller’s re-election bid in Ohio, betting that voters in the GOP-leaning Cleveland-area district will look past domestic-violence allegations from his ex-wife, which Miller has denied. Miller, 37, is locked in a down-to-the-wire race with Democrat Brian Poindexter, 47, an ironworker and former Brook Park city councilman endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) and several unions. Nonpartisan election watchers have moved the contest into the tossup column, and outside groups on each side have combined to commit more than $11 million to the district.

“The people of our district know who I am,” Miller said recently. “We’re going to be OK.”

Miller’s ex-wife, Emily Moreno, the daughter of Ohio’s other Republican senator, Bernie Moreno, has alleged in court filings and police reports that Miller threw boiling water at her, held a gun to her head and engaged in other physical abuse. The allegations drew national attention in late July. Miller has denied all of the allegations. The House Ethics Committee is investigating, and Moreno and Miller, who divorced in 2025, share custody of their daughter, whose collarbone Moreno alleges was broken in Miller’s care.

In an August statement, Bernie Moreno said his former son-in-law “is a danger to my daughter” and shouldn’t be serving in Congress, joining other Republicans including Sen. Jon Husted (R., Ohio), the state’s other GOP senator, in calling for Miller to drop out.

Unlike other congressmen facing allegations of wrongdoing — including Rep. Eric Swalwell (D., Calif.) and Rep. Tony Gonzales (R., Texas), who ended their campaigns this year — Miller remained in the race.

During the summer, Trump declined to withdraw his endorsement or publicly call for Miller to step down, framing the claims as a private family matter. But Trump warned Miller, who served as a White House aide in Trump’s first term, that his prospects of winning weren’t good. Trump also privately told some advisers he thought Miller should step aside, according to a person with knowledge of his comments.

That posture has shifted. Miller said Trump is now “incredibly supportive” and that Trump called him in September to praise him after earlier doubts.

“It’s much different now. He was very happy with me…He says I’m going to win,” Miller said, referencing a September phone call with the president and White House officials. The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Both parties are flooding the district with outside money. Last month, the GOP leadership-aligned super PAC Congressional Leadership Fund committed about $5 million in ads, challenging a nearly $6 million effort by its Democratic counterpart. The National Republican Congressional Committee has also funded ads in the race.

Poindexter initially said over the summer that he wanted to focus on working-class issues rather than the congressman’s problems, but his campaign released an ad last month featuring a sheriff reading off the allegations against Miller.

“I just want to make sure people have the facts,” Poindexter said recently in Berea, Ohio. “We can continue to fight for workers while also letting people know who my opponent is and the character flaws that he has.”

Miller “is going to lose because of his character issues,” said Poindexter, who Democratic groups are heavily backing to flip the seat.

Miller and his allies have countered with ads focused on Poindexter’s own past encounters with law enforcement, including a police report from when Poindexter was 18 that alleged he tried to swallow a rock of suspected crack cocaine. Poindexter was not charged.

“I didn’t get charged because I absolutely did not do that,” Poindexter said. “I’m a much better person now than I was then…I will put my record up against Max Miller’s any day of the week.”

Poindexter is working to build name recognition and pick up Republican defectors. A former Republican and former truck driver, he spent a recent weekend introducing himself to attendees at a church lunch and rallying with Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, and he courted gas-station customers in a discussion about high prices.

The two candidates have never met. In interviews, each blamed the other for injecting personal matters into the race, and each likened his opponent to Graham Platner, the former Democratic Senate candidate in Maine who ended his campaign over sexual-assault allegations, which he denied.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) has called Miller’s troubles a personal issue and did not push him to leave the race. Miller said he had a “really good” conversation recently with Johnson.

On the trail, Miller pushes his toddler in a wagon and pops nicotine pouches as he campaigns, often flanked by a bodyguard and, at times, several law-enforcement officers. He points constituents to his district office in the same complex as a local courthouse — joking that it reminds him of his own court appearances — and has used those outings to rail at fellow Republicans who demanded he drop out, including Sen. Jon Husted (R., Ohio), who is fighting to hold his own seat against former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in one of the country’s most closely watched races.

After a meeting at an antiabortion pregnancy-care center in Ashland, Miller called Husted “as entertaining as a two-by-four” and “as smart as a box of rocks,” and boasted, “My chances of winning are much better than his.” Husted, who had said Miller should quit Congress over the allegations, didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Trump carried Miller’s district by 11 percentage points in 2024, but the allegations and signs that Democrats have the upper hand in the midterms have put the seat in play. Republicans need to defend every seat they can to retain their narrow House majority amid a grim outlook in the November elections.

Miller said he is confident that Republican voters will not punish him enough to cost him the race. At a fall festival in Medina County, he hugged a man in tie-dye who told him, “Don’t worry, we think Bernie Moreno sucks, too.”

Some local Republicans remain wary. Brandon Carpenter, a Republican running for Ashland County commissioner, said voters should “look into these allegations and make that decision for yourself” but added, “at the end of the day, where things are at, I think you’re much better off than voting for a Democrat.”

Others have been more pointed. Nicholas Wray, a 19-year-old Republican at an Ashland fair wearing a MAGA hat, said he could not support Miller.

“My siblings are mostly sisters and I love Bernie Moreno…As for if I would vote blue, it’s not off the table, but I’d prefer not to vote for that race,” Wray said.