A blue-collar union ironworker thinks he might just be able to topple a Republican incumbent Congressman with millions of dollars to spend on his own campaign.
Why? Because the Republican is Rep. Max Miller.
Tensions are mounting in a reliably GOP district as voters grapple with the decision to back either Brian Poindexter, an untried Democrat with misdemeanor charges on his record, or Miller, a man accused of breaking his 2-year-old daughter’s collarbone and repeatedly assaulting his ex-wife, the daughter of Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH).
But Poindexter, 46, is betting big that he helps his party take back control of the House on Nov. 3 — and not just because of the scandals.
“Republican voters and Democratic voters alike realize he hasn’t done anything for them,” Poindexter told Raw Story. “If you ask anybody in the district, they couldn’t point Max Miller out of a lineup.”
The same can’t be said of Ohio’s two conservative senators.
As allegations have surfaced of testosterone injections, a child's toy bunny held hostage and a girlfriend accused of scamming her ex-husband to buy Miller food, both Moreno and Sen.Jon Husted have declared Miller, 43, unfit to represent Ohio’s 7th Congressional District — as have multiple colleagues on both sides of the aisle.
But Miller has forged ahead, releasing a stunning trove of documents he argued proved his innocence and ads dismissing the allegations (which he denies) as the norms of divorce.
"It's messy and complicated," Miller says in the ad. "My family's heartbreak has been dragged onto your TV because, well, that's politics."
A fuming Poindexter brushed this message aside.
“It’s absolutely insulting to the intelligence of the voters in this district,” he told Raw Story. “People have seen his pattern of repeated behavior that has been unbecoming of a Congress member. He’s unfit to serve — that’s not me saying that, that’s both Republican Senators.”
While Democratic Party-funded campaign ads have slammed Miller over the abuse allegations from Emily Moreno — who says he scalded her with hot water and put a gun to her head — Poindexter, in conversation with Raw Story, put the focus on Miller’s record in Washington.
“We see it every day in our costs going up,” Poindexter said. “He supported this war [in Iran] six times, he’s supported blanket tariffs, and he voted to cut a trillion dollars out of health care.”
But even as Ohioans struggle to pay staggering prices at the gas pump, the nation’s political machines are pumping millions of dollars into the battle of Miller v. Poindexter.
House Majority PAC, a super PAC affiliated with House Democrats, has committed more than $6 million on Poindexter ads and the GOP-aligned Congressional Leadership Fund has booked more than $5.5 million in airtime for Miller, the Associated Press reports.
But as scandal after scandal has hit the incumbent— and President Donald Trump distances himself from his own former aide — Miller has been forced to inject $1 million into his own campaign.
Miller's ability to do so is one reason Poindexter wants to be sent to Washington, D.C. in 2027.
“It puts under a microscope our corrupt campaign finance system,” Poindexter told Raw Story. “It favors the wealthy and the well-connected. Somebody like me, a blue-collar working-class guy, I don’t have the luxuries that they have. It makes it an uphill climb.”
Yet Poindexter also believes Miller’s wealth — he’s the heir of a wealthy real estate dynasty with an estimated net worth of $9.8 million — serves as a weakness as well as a strength.
The ironworker told Raw Story that in his conversations with independent Ohio voters, he’s spotted a quiet trend.
“I don’t think any independent voter that I’ve talked to who has said Max Miller has done anything for them,” Poindexter said. “It just shows how out of touch he is, and how out of touch Washington in general is. They either don’t know or they don’t care what working families are going through.”
The Democrat isn’t taking any bets, but he remains “cautiously optimistic” he can claim victory on Election Day.
“Max Miller is taking his voters for granted thinking they’re going to buy the nonsense,” Poindexter said. “[But] people are going to make him accountable for his actions — for the first time in his entire life.”