Amid lawsuits, allegations of domestic violence, and calls to step aside from both of Ohio’s Republican U.S. Senators, Ohio Republican U.S. Rep. Max Miller is still running for reelection in November and his constituents say they are looking for consequences and accountability.
Heather Tuck-Macalla lives with her family in Bay Village, a town just west of Cleveland on the shores of Lake Erie.
She’s a librarian who has worked for years in the Cleveland area, and she loves Bay Village, the town she shares with Miller. But she says that’s a fact she wouldn’t know just from living in the area.
“He’s almost not human to me because I’ve never seen him around and he lives two blocks away from me,” Tuck-Macalla said last week.
Miller represents Ohio’s 7th U.S. House district in Congress. The Northeast Ohio district goes from the west side of Cuyahoga County south down past the city of Wooster. It includes southern and western Cuyahoga County, all of Medina and Wayne Counties, and the northernmost part of Holmes County.
John Blockinger, a retired Parma resident, said he’s trying to stay positive, but has been discouraged by the actions of Congress, including Miller, even before he became front-page news for allegations of domestic violence.
“I can’t believe that they haven’t just kicked his butt out of there,” Blockinger said. “And the (fellow congressional) Republicans should be doing more to get him out, because he’s going to be a drag on them in November.”
Multiple allegations of domestic violence have been leveled against Miller including by his ex-wife, the daughter of Ohio Republican U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno.
Moreno denounced Miller, saying that Miller doesn’t meet “the basic criteria of serving in Congress,” but has received criticism for the time it took for him to release a public statement.
Ohio Republican U.S. Sen. Jon Husted has also called on Miller to resign and drop out of his race for reelection, as have several Democratic members of Ohio’s congressional delegation, U.S. Reps. Shontel Brown and Emilia Sykes.
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson told Politico he won’t ask Miller to step down.
Miller has made no indication that he will drop out of the race, and has requested an ethics probe on himself, something he believes will clear his name. The Democratic candidate in the race is Brian Poindexter, and independent write-in candidates have also filed.
Congressional ethics investigation
Ethics investigations aren’t an uncommon thing for the U.S. House to deal with, though they are more commonly focused on campaign conduct or finance questions. But the discretion of a House ethics panel is broad, said Case Western Reserve University School of Law Professor Cassandra Burke Robertson.
“There’s really no limit, the committee can investigate pretty much anything that would be relevant to either somebody’s serving in the House, or there’s a very broad view of anything that could bring disrepute onto Congress, onto the House,” said Robertson, the director of the Center for Professional Ethics at the Case Western School of Law.
While many ethics investigations delve into the weeds of congressional procedure, something the public may or may not be interested in, the situation with Miller is bringing a lot of eyes to the proceedings, according to Robertson.
“I think what makes the allegations in this case so publicly interesting is that so many people have had experience with difficult divorces, with allegations of domestic abuse, either they’ve experienced it or they certainly know people who have,” Robertson said. “There’s just a lot more public attention, given the allegations.”
A resolution from the investigation will involve a lot of patience, as ethics probes tend to take time, she said.
The House panel will consider documents, gather data, possibly hold hearings, and then decide on the appropriate level of punishment, from no punishment at all, to censure or the worst-case scenario of full House expulsion.
Robertson said she wouldn’t be surprised if the investigation stretches past November.
“An investigation that serious would take some time, and if the investigation found serious consequences (were needed) and moved toward expulsion, I would be surprised if that could happen quickly, likely not before the election,” she said.
The political pressure surrounding the investigation could have a quicker timeline, with Republican members of Congress in particular seeing pushes for action.
“It’s got to be in the back of the minds of the other Congressmembers,” Robertson said. “I have no doubt that members are worried about disrepute, and about the political consequences of that.”
’Out of sync’
Constituents in Miller’s congressional district say they don’t feel like he’s representative of the needs of the region.
“I’d really like to get normal people, people who reflect our community better than a lot of these yes men for Trump,” Tuck-Macalla said.
With a Japanese American uncle who lived in internment camps during World War II, the Bay Village resident said she’s worried that patterns are repeating in Congress that lead to negative impacts on large groups of people, such as the immigration crackdown, and the lack of support for public education.
“I don’t feel like the policies Max Miller is supporting are doing what Americans want,” Tuck Macalla said. “Everything that I feel like is a baseline for a good quality of life is being taken away.”
Blockinger has reached out to Miller and the rest of his congressional representatives and senators, pushing back against immigration policies, cuts to Medicaid, and other government spending cuts to public services.
“It’s so out of sync with what we should be doing as a government,” Blockinger said. “I don’t feel represented at all by anyone.”
Hoping for a Democratic wave in the Nov. 3 general election, the Parma grandfather wants to see reversals of Trump executive orders and the Big Beautiful Bill as soon as possible, along with other policies that he saw Miller working “in lock-step” with the Trump administration to implement.
“I think we’ve got to stop basically just being nice guys, and keep pointing out the number of people who are hurt, and the money that’s being lost here,” Blockinger said.
Tuck-Macalla is hopeful the district can move on from Miller and the negative public attention.
“Max Miller does not represent who we are, and with him, I don’t feel very patriotic,” she said.
The Libertarian Party of Ohio released a statement on Aug. 3 “unequivocally” demanding the resignation of Miller, saying his continued presence in Congress “dishonors the district he was elected to serve and sends a dangerous message that powerful politicians are immune to basic standards of conduct.”
“The allegations surrounding Representative Miller reflect a disturbing pattern that goes far beyond partisan politics,” the statement read. “Ohioans in the 7th District deserve an elected official who respects the individual rights both in the halls of Congress and within their own home.”
The Capital Journal reached out for an interview with the Wayne County Republican Party, and the Republican Party of Medina County, both in Miller’s district, but did not receive a response.
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