In the closing days of the race, Rep. Max Miller is making the case to voters that divorce is messy and the controversies that surrounded him this summer are behind him.
But the high-profile custody case that roiled his reelection bid this cycle is scheduled to go to trial just days after Election Day.
Miller is campaigning to hold onto his seat in Ohio’s 7th Congressional District, a place that should be safe territory for a Republican. The district stretches to the outer suburbs of Cleveland and rural communities beyond it. Trump won by 11 points in the last presidential election here.
But in a midterm cycle where voters are paying more for gas and groceries, Republicans are finding themselves defending candidates in red territory. Add to that allegations from Miller’s ex-wife that he abused her and held a gun to her when their daughter was an infant — claims he vehemently denies — and what was once a safe Republican seat has emerged as a key battleground in the fight for the House majority.
National Republicans, who just months ago were trying to convince Miller to exit the race , have poured millions into it in the final weeks of the campaign as Miller’s fundraising has lagged. The congressman, who hails from an affluent family, loaned his campaign a million dollars last quarter as he raised just $145,000 from donors. Earlier this week, Federal Election Commission reports showed he gave his campaign another $250,000 loan.
Speaker Mike Johnson has called on a House Ethics process, which is ongoing, to play out and has not abandoned or disavowed Miller in the run-up to the election. The Congressional Leadership Fund, the House GOP’s leading super PAC, has invested more than $5 million in the race. Overall, Republicans have spent more than $9 million in the district.
Democrats, seeking an opportunity to expand their map, have spent $17 million there.
Miller is facing off against Democrat Brian Poindexter, a union ironworker, who says he feels “momentum” on the ground in the race.
“I am always going to be nervous until the votes are counted but there’s a lot of good momentum on the ground,” Poindexter told CNN in an interview Thursday. “We have thousands of volunteers and supporters, polling looks good, but ya know I am going to just continue to work for the next five days to make sure we reach as many people and make sure people exercise their right to vote.”
The race has been a dynamic battle where the character of both candidates has come under scrutiny as dueling ads have sought to highlight their pasts.
One of Poindexter’s early ads featured his daughters ribbing their dad in what was a clear effort to distinguish him from Miller, who was facing questions at the time about his treatment of women. But Poindexter has also had to address his own record, including a 2013 fight with another man at a baseball game, where he was arrested but not charged, and a 1998 incident in which he was arrested by police when they suspected he was in possession of crack cocaine. Poindexter was never charged in that incident either and told CNN Thursday he has never used hard drugs in his life. He also said he is routinely drug tested for his job and has never failed a test.
The incidents, however, have been a cornerstone of Republican ad campaigns against Poindexter, including one released by CLF last week titled “what’s he smoking?” in which a narrator is heard saying “worse than Poindexter’s thirty-year rap sheet of drugs and assault, his extreme liberal agenda.”
“Poindexter supports higher taxes on working families and higher taxes on seniors’ Social Security. Liberal Brian Poindexter’s even pushing free healthcare for illegals. It makes you wonder, what is Brian Poindexter smoking?,” the ad declares.
Poindexter told CNN Thursday that his own record has been “overblown.”
“I’ve been completely upfront and honest about my record getting in some fights, smoking marijuana a few times and getting some traffic tickets, but the more serious allegations they made about me are complete nonsense,” Poindexter said.
Poindexter tried to respond to some of the attacks in an ad in which he’s shooting pool, talking about a traffic citation he got and says, “the people who know me best know these ads are lies. The people who know Max Miller best hold their breath when he has custody of his daughter.”
The torrent of attacks from Republicans, however, seem to have had some impact with voters.
Kathy Brown, an independent voter in the district, told CNN last week that she may not vote for Miller or Poindexter because she says she worries about the behavior of both men.
“I don’t see either one of them as having a good character so I might go independent this way, which is kind of like throwing your vote out the window,” she said.
Corinne Bongers, another voter in the district who says she has voted more for Democrats since Trump won the presidency, told CNN that she is “probably going Poindexter” but that “the ads make them both look like bad people.”
Over the summer, as allegations against Miller gained more attention in the press, national Republicans quietly tried to convince the congressman to step down from the race so he could be replaced by another Republican candidate before an August deadline. His ex-father-in-law, GOP Sen. Bernie Moreno, said he should not serve in Congress and fellow Ohio Republican Sen. Jon Husted called for him to exit the race.
Miller was defiant, telling CNN’s Jake Tapper at the time, “I have the utmost confidence that my constituents back home know me,” he said.
“I’m going to continue to push. I am going to win this race,” the congressman told Tapper in early August.
Miller declined to comment for this story.
In a recent ad, Miller went direct to camera addressing his divorce and custody battle head on. He told voters “for two years, my family’s heartbreak has been dragged onto your TV because well, that’s politics.”
Miller went on to say that “despite relentless press of investigations, every allegation against me was proven false. As a result, I thankfully share equal custody of our sweet daughter.”
But Miller – if reelected – will return to Congress after the midterm elections with a House Ethics investigation still looming over him. Miller called for the investigation himself this summer, saying it would clear his name, but the committee does not publicly release conclusions on investigations this close to an election. It is not clear when the ethics committee will complete its investigation and release its findings.
Miller will also face the custody trial for his daughter just days after the election. Both parties are involved now in a torrent of legal briefs over the scope of that trial as his ex-wife Emily Moreno is seeking to amend the shared parenting agreement. Through the course of that custody battle, Moreno has made several allegations of abuse against Miller, including that he pushed her during a custody exchange in February and threw hot water on her at the end of their marriage. Miller has denied all wrongdoing.
