Two weeks ago, the story about Max Miller was that no Republican would say anything.

That's over. On Thursday, August 6, 2026, two U.S. senators publicly told the Ohio congressman to resign. A major conservative group called him unfit to serve. And a new poll showed him losing his own safe Republican district by 14 points.

Miller's answer was to announce he is loaning his campaign $1 million.

A necessary note up front: none of the allegations against Miller has been proven in court. He has never been criminally charged over any of them, and he has vehemently denied all of them. What follows is what people have said on the record, what was filed in court, and what Miller himself has said and done.

What his own party said out loud

Jon Husted, the Republican senator from Ohio, posted on X that he knows Miller, knows Miller's ex-wife Emily Moreno, and knows their daughter — and that he doesn't see how a congressional campaign helps any of them.

"I believe Max would be making the right decision to step aside as a candidate and resign from Congress to focus on what is in the best interest of his daughter. Years from now, I believe he will look back and know it was the right choice for her."

Sen. Tim Sheehy of Montana said it the same day, and he was blunter about the reason. He urged Miller to "step aside and seek help," then added the political calculation:

"Staying in this race makes it far more likely we lose this seat and hand Democrats a majority to impeach President Trump."

Read that again. Sheehy's stated worry isn't Emily Moreno, or the child. It's the House majority.

Then there's Americans for Prosperity, the deep-pocketed conservative network. Its Ohio state director, Donovan O'Neil, labeled Miller "unfit to serve." And he made a comparison his own side won't enjoy: Republicans had spent the previous month calling out Graham Platner, a Maine Democratic Senate candidate, over a sexual assault claim Platner denied. Republicans, O'Neil said, "should be just as willing to call out Max Miller and exorcise our own demons from the GOP."

That's the cleanest statement of the problem anyone has made. The standard Republicans applied to a Democrat in July is the standard they refused to apply to Miller in August.

The two men who could end this said no

President Trump — the man Miller worked for as a senior White House aide — was asked about him in the Oval Office on Thursday.

"Well, I'm not going to get involved in that."

He repeated that it was a "very sad situation." That's it. Trump routinely tells Republicans whether to run and whether to quit. Here, he had nothing.

House Speaker Mike Johnson also declined to tell Miller to drop out.

This is the pattern we've been documenting for weeks. When Jim Jordan was asked about the case, he called it "a family matter" — a phrase he did not extend to a Democrat in a comparable situation.

What's actually alleged

The allegations come from court filings by Miller's ex-wife, Emily Moreno, who is the daughter of Ohio's senior senator, Bernie Moreno. They include claims that Miller threw hot water at her and held a gun to her head, and that a February incident left their infant daughter with a broken collarbone.

We went through the underlying record in detail when 2,000 pages of documents surfaced.

Miller's public defense has leaned on his ex-wife's mental health. On August 2, he went live on X for more than 15 minutes to deny everything and describe her as having "medically diagnosed" mental health challenges. Her father responded that Miller "fails" any basic standard of character for holding office.

Three days later, Miller asked the House Ethics Committee to investigate him, saying he had "absolutely nothing to hide." The committee opened an investigation the same day — into domestic violence and illegal drug use.

The voters had already decided

A Co/efficient poll of 615 likely voters in Ohio's 7th District, taken August 5–6 with a margin of error of 3.94 points, found:

• Poindexter 47%, Miller 33% — a 14-point deficit
• Miller's unfavorable rating jumped from 41% to 57% in a single week
• Awareness of the abuse allegations rose from 53% to 86%

A late-July poll had the race at 44–39. In roughly a week, a competitive race became a rout.

His opponent is Brian Poindexter, a union ironworker and Brook Park city councilman. This is a seat Republicans were never supposed to have to think about. It's now one of four safe Republican seats suddenly in play — not over policy, but over the men holding them.

The $1 million answer

Under Ohio law, Miller had until Saturday to withdraw in order for the replacement process to finish before a 4 p.m. Monday deadline.

He didn't withdraw. Instead he said he would lend his own campaign $1 million, in two installments of $500,000.

"I am invested in this election in every way and I will invest the resources into my campaign to win."

It's worth being precise about what a candidate loan is. It isn't a donation. A loan can be paid back out of money raised later — meaning donors can end up reimbursing the candidate. Miller is not writing off $1 million. He is fronting it.

And what it buys is time. Every week Miller stays on the ballot is a week Ohio's 7th District has a congressman under an active ethics investigation, whose own party's senators have said he should go, and who is polling 14 points behind a city councilman.

Two Ohio senators, a Montana senator, and the state director of Americans for Prosperity all reached the same conclusion in the same week. The person who disagrees is the one whose job is on the line.

Source

"Sen. Jon Husted of Ohio says Rep. Max Miller should resign" by Julie Carr Smyth, The Associated Press, August 6, 2026. Photo: AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades. Poll and campaign-loan figures via Newsweek and Forbes.