Republicans lost their chance to save an Ohio House seat over the weekend. The deadline to replace Rep. Max Miller on the ballot in Ohio’s 7th District has passed, and a Miller spokeswoman told The New York Times that he intends to remain in the race. The party is now locked into a candidate its own leaders spent last week publicly urging to quit.
The seat should not be competitive. Donald Trump carried the district by 11 percentage points in 2024. Instead, Republicans are defending it in the middle of a scandal that has drawn condemnation from senators in their own conference and from a Koch-backed advocacy group operating in Ohio.
Miller’s ex-wife, Emily Moreno, is the daughter of Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio, and she has accused Miller of throwing scalding water at her and holding a gun to her head, and court records detail additional allegations of assault and verbal threats documented during the couple’s proceedings.
Miller attempted to clear his name by releasing a trove of documents, text messages, and emails he said would exonerate him; that material instead undercut his defense, including an admission to some of the physical incidents, which he characterized as unintentional. His attempt to defend himself on camera drew widespread criticism and accelerated the collapse of his standing.
This is not the first time Miller has faced accusations of this kind. Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham accused him of domestic violence years ago, and Republicans continued to back him. He is also currently facing a lawsuit connected to the allegations.
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The Polling Collapse
A survey from the Republican firm co/efficient, which was released as pressure mounted for Miller to exit, found him trailing Democratic nominee Brian Poindexter by 14 points. The poll showed near-universal awareness of the allegations across the district and concluded that the data does not support a viable path to victory for Miller.
Election handicappers responded quickly. Inside Elections now rates the race as only leaning Republican, while the forecasting outlet VoteHub has moved it to tilt Democratic. A district Republicans never had to think about is now a live threat to their majority.
Republicans Turned on Him Only at the End
The party’s public break with Miller arrived days before the deadline, after weeks of pressure to force him out.
Republican Sen. Jon Husted of Ohio called on Miller to leave office entirely, saying he did not see how a congressional campaign benefited anyone involved and that Miller would be making the right decision to step aside as a candidate and resign from Congress.
Republican Sen. Jim Banks of Indiana was blunter about the calculation on “Meet the Press,” framing the problem in terms of the House majority and saying Miller should drop out if he is endangering the seat.
Donovan O’Neil, state director of the Koch-backed super PAC AFP Ohio, went further. He wrote on X that too many Republicans are afraid to call Miller unfit for office, pointing out that the party was willing to condemn Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner just weeks earlier and arguing Republicans should be equally willing to hold their own accountable.
The allegations listed above were public long before Republicans objected. What changed was not the evidence but the polling, and the party moved only when the seat itself was at risk. Now the deadline has passed, Miller is on the ballot, and Republicans are running a candidate their own senators say should resign.