Republicans pour millions into once-safe House seat in bid to save Max Miller

Kent Nishimura/AFP/Getty Images

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.

Kent Nishimura/AFP/Getty Images

在竞选的最后几天，众议员马克斯·米勒向选民们表明，离婚是一件棘手的事情，而今年夏天围绕着他的争议已经过去了。

但这场备受瞩目的监护权案件搅乱了他本轮的连任竞选，预计将在选举日后几天开庭审理。

米勒正在竞选连任俄亥俄州第七选区的国会众议员席位，该选区通常是共和党的稳固票仓。该选区延伸至克利夫兰郊区及其周边农村地区。在上届总统选举中，特朗普在该选区以11个百分点的优势获胜。

但在中期选举周期中，选民们不得不为汽油和食品杂货支付更高的价格，共和党人却发现自己不得不在共和党传统票仓为候选人辩护。此外，米勒的前妻指控他曾虐待她，并在他们的女儿还是婴儿时用枪指着她——米勒对此予以强烈否认——这使得原本稳固的共和党席位变成了争夺众议院多数席位的关键战场。

几个月前还试图劝说米勒退出竞选的共和党全国委员会，在竞选的最后几周却投入了数百万美元，因为米勒的筹款工作进展缓慢。这位出身富裕家庭的国会议员，上个季度仅从捐款人那里筹集到14.5万美元，却自掏腰包向竞选活动提供了100万美元的贷款。本周早些时候，联邦选举委员会的报告显示，他又向竞选活动提供了25万美元的贷款。

众议院议长迈克·约翰逊已要求众议院道德委员会继续进行相关调查，目前该调查仍在进行中。在选举前夕，约翰逊并未放弃或否认米勒。众议院共和党的主要超级政治行动委员会——国会领导基金已在此次选举中投入超过500万美元。总体而言，共和党在该选区的支出已超过900万美元。

民主党人寻求扩大其版图的机会，已在该地区投入了 1700 万美元。

米勒的对手是民主党候选人布莱恩·波因德克斯特，他是一名工会钢铁工人，他说他感觉这场竞选“势头正盛”。

“在计票结果出来之前，我都会一直很紧张，但目前形势一片大好，”波因德克斯特周四接受CNN采访时表示。“我们有成千上万的志愿者和支持者，民调结果也不错，但你知道，接下来的五天我还会继续努力，确保我们接触到尽可能多的人，确保每个人都能行使他们的投票权。”

这场竞选是一场激烈的较量，两位候选人的品格都受到了严格审查，双方的竞选广告都试图突出他们的过往经历。

波因德克斯特早期的一则广告中，他的女儿们取笑父亲，显然是为了将他与当时正因对待女性的方式而备受质疑的米勒区分开来。但波因德克斯特也必须回应自己的过往记录，包括2013年在一场棒球比赛中与另一名男子发生冲突，他当时被捕但未被起诉；以及1998年因涉嫌持有可卡因而被警方逮捕。波因德克斯特在那次事件中也未被起诉，他周四告诉CNN，他一生从未吸食过毒品。他还表示，他因工作需要定期接受药物检测，从未出现过阳性结果。

然而，这些事件一直是共和党针对波因德克斯特发起的广告宣传活动的核心，其中包括CLF上周发布的一则名为“他到底在抽什么？”的广告，其中旁白说道：“比波因德克斯特三十年来的吸毒和袭击犯罪记录更糟糕的是他极端的自由主义议程。”

“波因德克斯特支持对工薪家庭增税，支持对老年人的社会保障金增税。自由派人士布莱恩·波因德克斯特甚至还在推动为非法移民提供免费医疗。这不禁让人怀疑，布莱恩·波因德克斯特到底在想什么？”广告如此宣称。

波因德克斯特周四告诉 CNN，他自己的记录被“夸大了”。

“我一直坦诚地承认自己有过打架斗殴、吸食过几次大麻、收到过一些交通罚单的经历，但他们对我提出的更严重的指控完全是无稽之谈，”波因德克斯特说。

波因德克斯特试图在一则广告中回应一些攻击，广告中他一边打台球，一边谈论他收到的一张交通罚单，并说道：“最了解我的人都知道这些广告都是谎言。最了解马克斯·米勒的人在他获得女儿监护权时都会屏住呼吸。”

然而，共和党人的猛烈攻击似乎对选民产生了一定的影响。

该选区的独立选民凯西·布朗上周告诉 CNN，她可能不会投票给米勒或波因德克斯特，因为她担心这两个人的行为。

“我觉得他们俩的人品都不好，所以我可能会以独立候选人的身份参选，这就像把选票扔出窗外一样，”她说。

该选区的另一位选民科琳·邦格斯表示，自从特朗普赢得总统大选以来，她更多地投票给了民主党人。她告诉 CNN，她“可能会投给波因德克斯特”，但“广告把他们俩都描绘成坏人”。

今年夏天，随着针对米勒的指控在媒体上引起更多关注，共和党全国委员会悄悄地试图说服这位国会议员退出竞选，以便在8月截止日期前由另一位共和党候选人接替他的位置。他的前岳父、共和党参议员伯尼·莫雷诺表示，他不应该在国会任职，而另一位俄亥俄州共和党参议员乔恩·赫斯特德也呼吁他退出竞选。

米勒态度强硬，当时他对 CNN 的杰克·塔珀说：“我非常有信心，我的选民们了解我。”

“我会继续努力。我一定会赢得这场选举，”这位国会议员在八月初告诉塔珀。

米勒拒绝就此事发表评论。

在最近的一则广告中，米勒直接面对镜头，直面他的离婚和监护权争夺战。他告诉选民：“两年来，我家的痛苦被搬上了你们的电视，因为，这就是政治。”

米勒接着说：“尽管调查持续不断，但所有针对我的指控都被证明是虚假的。因此，我很庆幸能与我们亲爱的女儿共同拥有监护权。”

但如果米勒连任，他将在中期选举后重返国会，但众议院道德委员会的调查仍将悬而未决。米勒本人在今年夏天就呼吁进行这项调查，称这将洗清他的罪名，但委员会通常不会在临近选举时公开调查结论。目前尚不清楚道德委员会何时完成调查并公布结果。

米勒将在大选后几天面临女儿的监护权审判。目前，双方正就审判范围展开大量的法律文书往来，因为他的前妻艾米丽·莫雷诺正寻求修改共同抚养协议。在监护权争夺战中，莫雷诺多次指控米勒虐待，包括今年二月在一次监护权交接中推搡她，以及在婚姻结束时向她泼热水。米勒否认所有指控。