Ohio voters reconsider Republican Max Miller amid domestic abuse allegations

David Griffith was a registered Republican for years.

But on Sunday evening, he watched Ohio congressman Max Miller stumble through an 18-minute statement in which the lawmaker attempted to defend himself against allegations of domestic abuse against his ex-wife and infant child.

What Griffith saw and heard, he said, was a person that bore no shape or resemblance to the Republican party he once supported.

“What I saw was a person who needs help,” said Griffith, seated at a bench in a community park in Wooster, a quiet town of 26,000 people situated at the southern end of the beleaguered Miller’s congressional district.

Though he has been critical of Donald Trump for years, last May Griffith ended his formal affiliation with the Republican party.

“At this [midterm] election, I’m voting a straight Democratic ticket,” he said. “I’ve never done that before.”

Across Miller’s largely red district, Republicans are deeply concerned with their representative’s alleged behavior and political future.

Miller’s ex-wife, Emily Moreno, the daughter of Republican Ohio senator Bernie Moreno, has accused Miller of pointing a gun at her head, pouring hot water on her and potentially breaking their two-year-old daughter’s collarbone. Emily Moreno has also alleged Miller physically attacked her attorney and another legal representative, and filed for a restraining order on her lawyer’s behalf. Emily Moreno and Miller are now locked in a bitter custody battle.

On Sunday, Bernie Moreno took to X to call for Miller to resign after years of silence on the issue: “He is a danger to my daughter, and I hold my breath every minute he has custody of my granddaughter.”

Miller, who faces an election this November, has denied any allegations of domestic abuse. In his statement on Sunday, he blamed the so-called leftwing media and his former wife for initiating a campaign to sully his name. On Tuesday, he attempted to defend himself further on Jake Tapper’s evening show on CNN, likening his fight to that of Trump’s when the president also faced sexual assault allegations.

“The police are not investigating it; ask yourself, why aren’t they investigating these things?” he said.

Before specific details of the allegations against Miller were recently made public and prior to Senator Moreno’s calls, Miller was expected to easily retain his seat, with pollsters suggesting in June the district leans Republican by five points. Miller, 37, who had previously served as a presidential aide during Trump’s first administration, was endorsed by Trump in 2021 during his first campaign. But this week, reports emerged that the president’s support for Miller may be waning. The final day the Ohio Republican party could replace Miller with another candidate , if it decides to do so, is 12 August.

Bill Heck, vice-chair of the Republican party of Medina county, which lies inside Miller’s district, wouldn’t say if he thinks the congressman should resign.

“There is so much stuff flying around that we have not been able to decipher what’s real and what’s not. What we’re trying to determine right now is how much of this is credible and how much he can refute and recover from,” he said.

But he did concede that Republican voters in Miller’s district are worried.

“I think a lot of our members and our steadfast Republicans are concerned,” he said. “I’m sure the president does not want to lose that seat. With 92 days left [to the election] it’s going to be really difficult for anybody to come in and take over the position – if appointed.”

A host of other Republican party county organizations and groups across Miller’s district, including the women’s branch of the Republican party of Cuyahoga county, asking if they thought the congressman should resign, did not respond to requests for comment on the situation.

While Miller as the incumbent won his 2024 congressional election by a 15% margin, a Democrat and independent candidate split the vote between them. In November, Miller faces Democrat Brian Poindexter, a union ironworker from Brook Park, a Cleveland suburb.

“The district leans Republican, but it is not so overwhelmingly Republican that a Democrat could never win,” says Justin Buchler, an associate professor of political science at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

“If you combine a midterm election moving everything nationwide towards the Democrats with a weak Republican candidate, that could be enough for the seventh district to flip. Miller is weakened at the moment, so if he tries to stay in the race, that helps Poindexter, and if Miller withdraws, then without a strong replacement, that still helps Poindexter.”

A former Marine Corps reserve, Miller, who is seeking a third congressional term, has a long history of allegations of violence towards women, including from former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, who accused him of pushing her against a wall and slapping her when the two were dating. (Miller has denied the allegation.)

In northeastern Ohio, the Miller family is known as one of the most powerful and respected in the region. Max’s grandfather, Sam, who died in 2019, was an esteemed Cleveland real estate mogul and philanthropist.

Sixty miles south of Cleveland, Wooster, the county seat of largely rural Wayne county, was once a heartbeat of the industrial midwest. The collapse of the local jobs market in the early 2000s and accompanying economic decline that followed over the past two decades has fueled resentment locally that Trump has long since tapped into.

In the 2024 presidential election, Trump won 70% of the vote in Wayne county. Wooster hasn’t elected a Democratic mayor for decades.

“If the [Republican] party followed the standards we did, then I’d say he should resign,” says Bill Bailey, a former judge and the chair of the Wayne county Democratic party.

“In my view, the Republican party is more concerned about retaining votes than they are about enforcing any kind of standards.”

He says he doesn’t believe Miller’s claims of innocence, nor do many typically Republican voters. In Wayne county’s primary elections held last May, Bailey says about 1,600 registered Republican voters chose independent candidates and another 500 Republicans picked Democrats.

“He hasn’t engaged with our community,” says Bailey of Miller. “I doubt that the average person would recognize him on the street.”

For Griffith, who runs a local Facebook group called Defending Democracy and believes that the Republican party should support the US’s allies overseas, Miller represents everything that’s gone wrong with the party.

“I have to believe that people get involved in public service because they want to do good, regardless of party,” he says.

“Max Miller is not one of those people.”