Max Miller doesn't want Ohio's 7th District to see a 30-second ad. So he tried to scare the TV stations out of running it.
The ad comes from his Democratic opponent, Brian Poindexter. In it, Summit County Sheriff Kandy Fatheree speaks to the camera. "Thirty-four years in law enforcement tells me Max Miller does not belong in power," she says, according to News 5 Cleveland's report, republished by the Ohio Capital Journal on September 23, 2026.
Then she lays out allegations from Miller's divorce case: "Court documents say Miller beat her, held a gun to her head. Child welfare found a broken collarbone on their 2-year-old, broken under his care and with suspicious bruising."
Miller's response was a lawyer's letter. He sent local stations, including News 5 Cleveland, a cease-and-desist letter threatening to sue if they aired the ad.
The stations ran it anyway
It didn't work, and it was never going to. Federal Communications Commission rules bar stations from censoring ads bought by candidates like Poindexter. News 5's legal team reviewed the ad and said it will air.
"The media can't act as a censor precisely because television, radio, newspapers all serve as forums," Case Western Reserve University election-law professor Atiba Ellis told the station. "The media is obligated to air ads as part of ensuring a robust debate."
Poindexter tore up the letter on camera. "He doesn't want people to hear the facts… Max Miller used his money and fancy lawyers to get himself out of his trouble his whole life, not this time," he said.
The Hill reported that Ohio stations broadcast the ad despite the threat.
What the allegations are — and what Miller says
Miller denies all of it. "I have never done these things," he said in August. "These things have already been investigated." He has not been criminally charged.
The allegations come from his ex-wife, Emily Moreno — the daughter of Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno. We went through 2,000 pages of records first reported by Mother Jones. Moreno told detectives he had held a gun to her head. A county child-welfare investigation into their 2-year-old's broken collarbone was ruled unsubstantiated.
That is exactly why voters should get to hear the claims and his denial and decide for themselves. What a member of Congress shouldn't do is send lawyers to keep a sheriff's words off local TV.
Threatening the messenger
This isn't the first time Miller has gone on offense to control this story. Earlier this year he posted his custody file on X — and a federal lawsuit now says a nude photo of his 2-year-old was in it.
Meanwhile his own campaign has just produced an ad that says Poindexter wants to go "from crack to Congress," over a 1998 arrest. Poindexter, then 18, was never charged, and his campaign says he has passed random drug tests as a union ironworker for 20 years. So Miller believes voters can handle a 28-year-old police report on his opponent — just not a sitting sheriff talking about court records in his own case.
What we know
Max Miller sent local TV stations a cease-and-desist letter threatening to sue if they aired an ad in which Summit County Sheriff Kandy Fatheree describes the abuse allegations in his divorce case. Federal rules bar stations from censoring candidate ads, and the stations aired it. Miller denies the allegations and has not been charged.
Source
Ohio Congressman Max Miller's race gets dirty, with both sides objecting to attack ads — Morgan Trau, News 5 Cleveland via Ohio Capital Journal, September 23, 2026. Photo: WEWS.
