This November, Ohio’s 7th Congressional District will be voting for a house representative. Republican Congressman Max Miller is up for his second re-election, and he is running against Democratic nominee Brian Poindexter.

Throughout his first two terms, Miller’s policy focused on securing the southern U.S. border and reducing government regulations on American manufactures. He also directed his efforts toward helping high school students attend trade school rather than a traditional four-year college.

In Miller’s first campaign for the congressional position, he incurred strong support from Donald Trump and received his praise at a political rally in Ohio in 2021. Throughout his first term, Miller gained support from high-profile Republicans and even large organizations such as Turning Point Action, a non-profit organization centered on conservative activism. However, following recent allegations of severe domestic violence against his ex-wife and family members, the support behind Miller seems to have decreased.

On Feb. 19 at Cleveland Clinic, an X-ray of Miller’s two-year-old daughter revealed that her collarbone had been broken and her back appeared to have a “handprint bruise.” The case was reported to the Cuyahoga County Division of Children and Family Services, and the police were then alerted. Miller, Miller’s ex-wife, Emily Moreno, and the family’s nanny all claimed they were not at fault.

In an interview with the police department, Miller said, “In my line of work, one allegation can take somebody down, and it doesn’t matter if there is any proof behind it.”

Initially, he suggested that the injury could have been caused by a car seat; however, detectives later ruled out the car seat theory after looking at the bruise pattern. Miller later blamed his ex-wife Emily Moreno saying, “She did it. She’s guilty.”

Furthermore, the child protection specialist from Family Services spoke to police and shared that the little girl was with Miller when the injury was sustained.

When Moreno was questioned by police she said, “I just think sometimes he can get angry. My daughter will say stuff, like ‘Daddy’s angry,’ or ‘Daddy’s house is scary.’”

Later, when asked about her own experiences with Miller, Moreno said, “I was just scared of him a lot. He would get mad if the baby was crying.”

The family’s nanny that worked at both Moreno and Miller’s home commented that the child would hurt herself for attention. According to the nanny, the girl once became frustrated while building a puzzle and hit her head on the floor.

In April, Children and Family Services came to the conclusion that the child abuse claim against Miller was unsubstantiated. The agency reported that the abuse was from an “alleged perpetrator,” meaning that although there were signs of child abuse, the perpetrator is unknown.
Then, in May, the prosecutor’s office decided that the case had “insufficient admissible evidence” to bring the case to a grand jury. Therefore, the case was closed.

This event brought to light Miller’s custody dispute and similar abuse allegations from Moreno. She claimed that he once held a gun to her head and more recently threw her against a wall during a custody exchange with their daughter. The couple was married in 2022 at Trump’s golf club in New Jersey, where he even spoke at the reception.

On Aug. 2, Miller hosted a livestream on X to defend himself from the family violence allegations. Following the stream, he published a Dropbox folder of documents to support his defense. The folder contained a photo of his daughter that contained the child’s genitals. Moreno’s legal team argued that the photo could be considered child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit against her ex-husband.

The link received over 200,000 views before being taken down. Aaron Minc, Miller’s attorney, took full responsibility and apologized, saying that it was an unintentional mistake.

“I am solely responsible for what happened,” Minc admitted.

Bernie Moreno, Emily Moreno’s father and Republican U.S. Senator of Ohio, said his former son-in-law should step down and “seek professional help”. In a post on X, he wrote, “If there are any basic standards of character required to hold elected office, Max Miller fails them.”

During a phone call later in August, Trump told Miller his situation looked bad and that his re-election fight would be difficult. The president did not specifically recommend resigning from the race.

After speaking with Trump, Miller claimed he would open an ethics investigation on himself to clear his name from the multiple abuse allegations. Miller commented that since he hasn’t received any explicit requests to withdraw, he will remain in the race with the goal of securing another term.

The U.S. House Committee on Ethics released a press statement regarding the allegations made against Miller. The committee is investigating the potential misconduct according to Committee Rule 18(a), though notes that an active investigation does not necessarily indicate that any violation occurred.