For about as long as Max Miller has been in politics, discussion of his rap sheet and character have made rounds.
There was the 2007 assault case that alleges Miller, then 19, punched a guy in the back of the head. The misdemeanor disorderly conduct plea in 2010, after Miller smashed a glass door at a Cleveland Heights hookah bar. Then, the following year, Miller pleading to a failure to control charge after waking up “urine-soaked” after a bender at Miami University.
For the past two years, Miller’s contentious divorce with ex-wife Emily Moreno has amplified into public spectacle, with a cascade of allegations and reports months before the November election. A suit that has produced a trove of records highlighting multiple allegations that Miller abused his two-year-old daughter, leaving bruises and a broken collarbone.
Child Protective Services later found the allegations were “unsubstatiated.”
Moreno has also accused Miller of holding a gun to her head, throwing boiling water at her, and other allegations of abuse. Miller has previously been accused by abuse by former girlfriend Stephanie Grisham, who recently filed for a temporary restraining order against the Congressman.
A handful of Ohio politicians, including senators Jon Husted and Bernie Moreno, Miller’s former father-in-law, have urged Miller to step down from his seat. Miller’s instead taken a page from the Trump-MAGA playbook and stayed resolute.
So, as the U.S. House Ethics Committee ponders a full-on investigation, the question is: should Miller’s record disqualify him from holding office?
“Come on, this guy has a pattern of abuse,” Cindy Demsey, chair of the Cuyahoga Democratic Women’s Caucus Steering Committee, told Scene, leading a protest of Miller on Friday on the corner of Ridge and Ridgewood.
“He’s got anger management issues, he’s out of control,” she said. “I dunno. I’m just saying to voters, think. This isn’t policy. This is character. You have one person in the House of Representatives. Is this the guy you want?”
Demsey’s protest of Miller and his alleged behavior attracted roughly 40 to come out in the center of Parma, which lies in Miller’s 7th District. Many held signs spotlighting snippets from Miller’s personal drama amid high-profile divorce—that he “stole” his daughter’s stuffed rabbit, that lawyer Aaron Minc’s posting of nude medical photos of his two-year-old amounted to “child porn.” (Emily Moreno has filed a federal lawsuit over the photos.)
Those in attendance who spoke to Scene agreed with Demsey: regardless of what the courts say, the seat is better without Miller and the accusations enveloping him.
“Character Matters,” one man’s sign read. “Too many abusers in Congress already!”
Democrat and former Brook Park councilman Brian Poindexter is challenging Miller in November. A recent Cook Political Report alert shifted the 7th District result prediction on Monday from “Likely Republican” to a “Toss Up.”
If Miller does lose, his loss could spell a midterm shift in favor of Democrats, and a chance to turn Ohio purple two years into Trump’s second term.
Yet, in interviews with critics of Miller and fans of Poindexter, many said their minds were more focused on the policies of the latter than the rap sheet of the former. Even as they held signs calling Miller a “monster.”
“I liked Poindexter before the anti-Miller groundswell,” Chuck Biscotti, a retired doctor, told Scene while protesting with his wife and daughter. “I was gonna vote for Poindexter. But the record—I mean, it’s not just accusations by one person, it’s multiple people.”
His daughter, Ellen Biscotti, believed Miller’s own party wasn’t tying his accusations to his politics enough.
“I think that Republican policy upholds misogyny and the patriarchy,” Biscotti, 38, said. “And anyone who supports it is supporting issues that lead to domestic domestic abuse and lead to domestic abuse not being taken seriously.”
Poindexter, an ironworker, has sold himself as a working class Dem with a focus on cost of living.
“He’s aware of the everyday issues that our people are dealing with,” Demsey said. She nodded across the street to a sign advertising gas for $4.79 a gallon. “That is insanely high. People are struggling with inflation, food costs, gas costs.”
Across the street, as cars whizzed by honking, was Linda Kohar, a former Parma councilwoman.
“People are having a tough time making ends meet,” Kohar, 80, said. “And Max Miller is doing nothing to address our problems.”
“He should really step down,” she added.
On August 2, Miller posted a 20-minute video on X, accompanied by his entire case file. It was two weeks after Mother Jones published an investigative feature on Miller that sourced 2,000 pages of court filings and police reports.
“I’ve been portayed as an abusive husband, an abusive father and a violent man,” Miller said in a video taped in his Bay Village kitchen. “Those allegations have damaged my reputation, caused enormous pain to my family, and most importantly, it affected our daughter.”
“To be clear, no court, no agency has ever substantiated any allegation of abuse against me.”
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