Rep. Max Miller (R-OH), accused of abusing his ex-wife and toddler daughter, turned down an invitation to President Donald Trump's first-ever midterm convention to spend time with his family.
Miller is one of several endangered Republicans staying home rather than joining the president in Dallas, the New York Times reported Tuesday.
The Dallas gathering on Sept. 9 and 10 is the first midterm convention either major party has held, and Trump is scheduled to headline both nights. Lawmakers are being charged $25,000 to attend, according to the Times.
"I was invited, but staying home to campaign and spend time with family," Miller told the newspaper.
The Times described Miller as an embattled Republican fighting to keep his seat after allegations of domestic abuse upended his campaign.
The family Miller says he is staying home with is the same family at the center of those allegations, which involve his ex-wife and their 2-year-old daughter.
Emily Moreno told police she noticed a large bruise on the couple's daughter during a bath in February 2025, CNN reported. Miller asked to see a photograph of the injury, which turned out to be a broken collarbone, and the discovery prompted a police investigation.
The child had a right clavicle fracture and "a bruise that accompanies the injury that appears to be in a handprint and appears to have been inflicted," according to the child protection team's findings in the police report.
CNN's Jake Tapper pressed him on that finding during an August interview, along with what the child reportedly said in the days before the injury was found.
"Daddy angry" and "daddy's house is scary," the child told her mother, Emily Moreno, police said, along with the phrase "daddy kill you."
Miller answered that his daughter was 2 years old and could not "string sentences together like that," Tapper's interview showed.
The congressman had said moments earlier that the child made similar remarks about her mother, and when Tapper noted the contradiction, Miller pivoted to a complaint about due process.
Emily Moreno is the daughter of Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH), and her allegations against Miller extend well beyond the collarbone injury. Miller "previously held a gun to her head as well," a police officer wrote after taking her statement on Feb. 1, CBS News reported.
That detail did not appear in the copy of the police report Miller later posted online, NBC affiliate WCMH found when it compared his files against court records.
Emily Moreno said she told Miller in June 2024 that she planned to leave him, according to CBS News. Miller then allegedly "threw onto Ms. Moreno hot water from a pan of eggs he'd just cooked." She photographed red marks on her chest and says he also sprayed her with the kitchen sink nozzle, WCMH reported. Miller has called the sprayer incident "horseplay" and said the water was not scalding.
Court records show Emily Moreno also accused Miller of attacking her in February of this year, after their divorce. Emily Moreno said her ex-husband "trashed me and pushed me and threw me to the ground" in the filings.
Miller has argued that she attended a child's birthday party after the alleged assault, which he says shows no abuse occurred. Emily Moreno strongly disagrees.
In another lawsuit, Emily Moreno alleged that Miller and his attorney Aaron Minc "recklessly published and disclosed to the world a nude image" of the couple's daughter. The link stayed up for 23 hours, drew more than 400,000 views, and she is seeking $150,000 in damages each time the image is downloaded. Miller's lawyer later took responsibility for the published image.
In a recent interview, Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) told reporters that Miller had refused to return his granddaughter's blue stuffed bunny over the weekend.
"This girl is crying at night because she can't sleep without her little blue bunny. His answer is 'I'm just not gonna give it to you,'" Sen. Bernie Moreno said, calling it a level of total and complete depravity.
Leaked text messages published by the New Republic show that the dispute began months earlier, and that an attorney for Emily Moreno emailed Miller's lawyers on Aug. 3, asking them to "have Max return the bunny forthwith."
The police investigation into the collarbone injury ended without charges, and Miller retains joint custody of his daughter. He denies every allegation and has accused Emily Moreno of abusing the child herself.
Miller asked the House Ethics Committee to investigate him in an effort to clear his name, and the panel announced in August that it had opened an inquiry into the abuse and drug-use claims. "I have absolutely nothing to hide," he said.
The embattled lawmaker's decision to skip the event comes after Trump has defended him at nearly every stage, beginning with the 2021 endorsement that launched his congressional career.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office last month, Trump called the allegations against Miller "a very sad thing."
"I know Max. He's a good person," Trump insisted at the time, adding that he would "let the families figure that out."
Trump's team then asked Ohio Republicans to stop pressuring Miller to quit the race, reversing an effort that other Republicans and some White House officials had already started, Politico reported.
"They basically told us to back off," one Ohio Republican told Politico, "and let the voters decide."
Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH), who has called on Miller to resign, is not staying home. Husted is billed as a speaker in Dallas, according to plans shared with the Times.
