MEDINA, Ohio — Before his family drama erupted into political scandal, Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) seemed set to cruise to a third term in Congress. Despite allegations of domestic violence and requests for restraining orders, Miller had largely kept his contentious divorce out of the campaign for this Republican-leaning district in northeast Ohio.
Then in early August, his former father-in-law, Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), publicly called Miller a “danger” unfit to serve in the House. Though Miller denies the accusations of abuse by his ex-wife, he has been unable to quell the uproar that unexpectedly turned this red territory into a central congressional battleground this fall.
Nearly $25 million in television and digital advertising has flooded into Ohio’s 7th Congressional District in the past three months, according to the media tracking firm AdImpact, as Democrats try to elevate challenger Brian Poindexter and Republicans scramble to hold a seat that backed President Donald Trump by 11 percentage points in 2024. The district, by comparison, saw less than $900,000 in commercials during the entire 2024 congressional election, all for Miller.
Voters across the district, which stretches south from the suburbs of Cleveland into conservative farming communities, say they are sick of the crush of ads they describe as mudslinging, overbearing and overwhelming. The most frequently aired commercials relitigate the claims against Miller and dive into Poindexter’s brushes with the law when he was younger.
The barrage of personal attacks has left the outcome uncertain, as some Republican voters question whether they can stand behind Miller again but also whether they can stomach Poindexter as an alternative. If even a modest fraction flip their votes or sits out the race altogether, a win is within reach for Democrats.
“It’s something I’m going to go home and pray about,” Pam Pendleton, a 63-year-old machine operator torn between her conservative values and her concerns about the allegations against Miller, said as she left the Walmart Supercenter here. “The Lord will guide in which road I need to take.”
Miller’s campaign declined requests to make him available for an interview. Miller claims his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, fabricated the domestic violence allegations against him because she is mentally ill, which she denies.
Since their divorce was finalized in June 2025 after less than three years of marriage, Moreno has charged in court filings that Miller tossed hot water on her from a pan of eggs he had just cooked, once held a gun to her head and on another occasion threw her against a wall. She blamed him for hurting their 2-year-old daughter, who suffered a fractured collarbone in February, though an investigation by local authorities could not determine who was responsible.
Miller, who resisted calls to drop his reelection bid, faces a House ethics investigation into the allegations. He has rarely addressed them publicly, though he released a campaign ad this month lamenting the “pain of divorce” and noting that he continues to share custody of his daughter.
According to the couple’s most recent court-approved shared parenting plan, Moreno is the “residential parent and legal custodian,” but she splits time and expenses with Miller. She is seeking sole custody of their daughter, with a trial date scheduled in November.
Poindexter, a union ironworker and member of the Brook Park City Council, and his Democratic allies have sought to capitalize on the strife. Multiple television spots have featured law enforcement officers gravely recounting the accusations against Miller. Another showcases Poindexter’s own three daughters praising their father, including his love of performing the viral dance known as the floss.
In turn, Miller and Republican groups have poured millions of dollars into commercials highlighting Poindexter’s past run-ins with the law, particularly a 1998 arrest as a teenager for allegedly trying to swallow a rock of suspected crack cocaine at a traffic stop. Poindexter was not charged for the incident, and he says he “never touched hard drugs in my entire life.”
Poindexter’s largest TV buy has been for an ad where he tells the camera that he owns his past mistakes and “turned my life around,” in contrast to Miller.
“I just got to laugh at some of these ads because they’re completely ridiculous,” Poindexter said in an interview. “The only chance he has is to muddy the water to seem like we’re on the same playing field as far as character is concerned. And I will put my character up against Max Miller any day of the week.”
Endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) earlier this year, Poindexter is leaning heavily into his labor credentials and a populist message to reach voters in an election where affordability is the biggest concern, while trying not to come across as overly partisan.
“What we have now is not capitalism. What we have is crony capitalism, where the richest people in the country have teamed up with the most corrupt people in our country to buy our government, to further enrich themselves,” Poindexter said. “I want to get back to a capitalist society where work has value, where people make enough money to support their families.”
If elected to Congress, Poindexter said he would work as readily with Moreno on his plan to fix the Social Security shortfall as he would with Sanders.
“I’ll stand with both Bernies,” he said.
“I’ll stand with Bernie Kosar from the Browns if I have to, to fight for working families,” he added, referencing a former quarterback for the Cleveland football team.
On a recent afternoon, Poindexter showed off the local ironworkers union headquarters in Cleveland to Rep. Stephen F. Lynch (D-Massachusetts), a former ironworker, and several union officials from Boston before they headed out to canvass for him. Lynch, who said he’s in recovery for substance abuse, pointed with admiration to a sign in the apprentice workshop that proclaimed “this project being built by drug-free ironworkers.”
“Got to get that,” Poindexter told one of his campaign staffers, who was filming for social media. “Because of those stupid ads they’re running.”
That evening, Poindexter headlined a union-organized rally in Brook Park alongside the Dropkick Murphys, a popular American Celtic punk rock band, encouraging the crowd to “take our power back.” To the side, a group of attendees held a giant “Max Miller’s a first class loser” sign, a reference to one of the band’s popular songs.
As he listened to the Dropkick Murphys rip through their signature “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” — with rewritten lyrics about shipping Poindexter to Washington — Richie Malloy said he felt optimistic that the local labor movement might soon be sending one of its own to Congress.
Malloy, a 58-year-old electrician, lives outside Poindexter’s district, but he said the onslaught of campaign ads has come up at worksites. Even some of his co-workers who are not Democrats have been drawn to Poindexter because he’s a fellow union member, Malloy said.
“He plays that up. That resonates with a lot of guys,” Malloy said. “Will it be enough?” He shrugged. “But I tell you what, it’s been more than I’ve seen in other years.”
Jonny Vidas, 48, a maintenance manager at a local manufacturing plant, was less convinced.
Vidas, who is not in a union and considers himself middle-of-the-road politically, attended the rally to see the Dropkick Murphys. He did not vote for most of his life, he said, because he did not think his vote mattered, but that changed with Trump; fearful of what he regards as a creeping fascism under Trump and the Republican Party, Vidas said he voted for the Democrats in the last two presidential elections.
“I pretty much vote for whoever doesn’t scare the living s— out of me,” he said. “I look for people who are genuine and real.”
At the end of the rally, however, Vidas was not sold on Poindexter. He said Poindexter’s speech had catered to the unions supporting him rather than addressing the concerns of workers at large.
“He’s for himself. I’m for the people,” Vidas said. He headed home decided that he probably would not vote for either Miller or Poindexter, both of whom he said were “out for themselves.”
Perhaps the biggest challenge for Poindexter is that many local Republicans remain staunchly behind Miller. They argue he is a good person who has been falsely accused by his ex-wife and set up by political forces, including the Morenos.
“It’s a crime. It’s a shame,” Ginny Riehl, a 76-year-old retired bank manager, said at a pancake breakfast in Strongsville, part of a statewide bus tour to support GOP candidates. Miller, who was slated to appear with gubernatorial hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy and others, canceled at the last minute.
“Where was all this before? Why is it coming out now?” Riehl said, adding that the situation made her lose confidence in Bernie Moreno, rather than Miller. “Common sense tells you it’s fake.”
Loading their groceries into their car at the Medina Walmart, Joe and Mary Knapper expressed annoyance at the blanket of campaign ads, which they theorized was intended to discourage Miller voters so they would stay home.
“The news can say what they want about him,” said Joe Knapper, 58, who does not work because of a disability. “He’s been in there and he’s done a good job. I have no problem with him.”
Mary Knapper, 59, a care counselor, accused the Democrats of playing dirty by spreading hearsay. “There’s two sides to every story,” she said.
Other Republican voters are sticking by Miller because they fear the alternative. Concerns about Democrats spreading socialism if they win power are widespread across the district.
“I’m not voting for a personality. I’m voting for a position,” Joan Brothers, a 68-year-old retired school bus driver, said after casting her ballot early in Wooster.
She said she found Poindexter’s past brushes with the law nearly as disqualifying as the accusations that Miller abused his wife, so she stuck with the GOP slate.
“I voted for Max Miller because President Trump endorsed him, and I’m a fan of everything President Trump does,” Brothers said.
But doubts about Miller have crept in for some Republicans and conservative-leaning voters. John Gearo, a 49-year-old telecommunications worker who attended the pancake breakfast in Strongsville, said he planned to abstain. Though Gearo said he could not support Poindexter, whom he considered too liberal, the allegations against Miller concerned him as a family man and grandfather.
“Not knowing” whether they are true, Gearo said, “I’d rather not vote for him at all.” He added, “My family values come first before political values.”
None of it may matter if a blue wave crashes over Ohio this year. Voter frustrations about the economy have made the Democrats on the ballot, including gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton and U.S. Senate candidate Sherrod Brown, unusually competitive this year.
Some voters in Miller’s district who identify as Republican or independent say they are voting a straight Democratic ticket this year, to send a message to the GOP for blindly going along with Trump on policies such as tariffs and the war in Iran.
“The way the Republican Party has been, they don’t deserve my vote,” Nick Boulter, a 57-year-old technical manager, said as he left the early voting center in Wooster. He said he was furious about the “blank check” that Republicans have given the president.
Isabell Sanders said she’s felt so disconnected from both political parties recently that she sat out the 2024 election altogether. The 37-year-old flood insurance agent isn’t confident that either Democrats or Republicans are capable of fixing the affordability crisis and other problems that the country is dealing with.
“It feels a little hopeless lately,” Sanders said outside the Walmart in Medina. “I’m fatigued. Last time, I didn’t vote because it didn’t feel like it was going to do anything.”
But she’s planning to give it another chance this year, channeling her disappointment into a vote for the Democratic candidates, including Poindexter. His ads directly addressing his past legal troubles made him more likable to Sanders, and far more relatable, she said, than the “sleazy” Miller.
“Everybody has a history,” she said.
The post Max Miller, fighting domestic abuse allegations, scrambles to hold House seat appeared first on Washington Post.
