{"id":39985,"date":"2026-08-12T03:58:04","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T22:58:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=39985"},"modified":"2026-08-12T03:58:04","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T22:58:04","slug":"the-house-democratic-money-machine-is-coming-for-gop-rep-max-miller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=39985","title":{"rendered":"The House Democratic money machine is coming for GOP Rep. Max Miller"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/Xr3sZeXC-Ih2TqHjWVB1hY8GkC4=\/0x168:4500x2700\/1366x768\/2026\/08\/11\/1786479107892.jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Democrats have gone from treating Rep. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/08\/06\/max-miller-republicans-bernie-moreno-trump-ohio\" target=\"_blank\">Max Miller<\/a> (R-Ohio) as a best-case-scenario target to a genuinely vulnerable incumbent whose downfall is worth a real investment.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why it matters: <\/strong>Democratic groups tell Axios they plan to put their money where their mouth is and spend to win the seat, which Trump carried by double digits in 2024.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<ul>\n<li>Phil Gardner, a spokesperson for the centrist Blue Dog Action Fund, said his group <a href=\"https:\/\/docquery.fec.gov\/cgi-bin\/forms\/C00908707\/1974409\/se\" target=\"_blank\">spent nearly $200,000<\/a> to support Miller&#8217;s Democratic opponent, Brian Poindexter, in the primary &#8220;to make sure Democrats would be on their strongest footing if Max Miller started crashing out.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;We&#8217;re prepared to invest again in the general election and finish the job,&#8221; he told Axios.<\/li>\n<li>The Saturday deadline for Miller to drop off the general election ballot <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/08\/09\/ohio-gop-max-miller-7th-district-moreno-2026\" target=\"_blank\">came and went<\/a> despite pressure from Republicans for him to withdraw over allegations of domestic abuse, which he denies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Driving the news: <\/strong>The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee made clear Tuesday morning that it views the district as a top target by adding Poindexter to its &#8220;Red to Blue&#8221; program.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Red to Blue provides Democratic candidates in &#8220;highly competitive&#8221; Republican-controlled or open House seats with &#8220;organizational and fundraising support,&#8221; according to the DCCC&#8217;s website.<\/li>\n<li>In other words: It is House Democratic leadership&#8217;s list of candidates they see as the best positioned to win in November \u2014 and thus the best use of their time and money.<\/li>\n<li>DCCC spokesperson Riya Vashi noted that the House Democratic campaign arm already had the district on its less selective <a href=\"https:\/\/dccc.org\/dccc-announces-2026-districts-in-play\/\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;districts in play&#8221; list<\/a> and that &#8220;the unstoppable momentum building behind Brian Poindexter only confirms that OH-07 is one of the best pick-up opportunities on the map.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Between the lines: <\/strong>Most of the other candidates on the list are running in seats that former Vice President Kamala Harris won in 2024 or which went for Trump by single digits.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Trump carried Ohio&#8217;s 7th district by more than 11 percentage points.<\/li>\n<li>But a poll of 866 likely voters in the district <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/28549911-oh-07-survey-poindexter-v-miller-toplines\/\" target=\"_blank\">first shared with Axios<\/a> found Poindexter leading Miller by eight percentage points, 43% to 35%.<\/li>\n<li>The survey, commissioned by the Poindexter-supporting Iron Workers International union and Democratic group The Next 50, was conducted Aug. 7\u201310 and has a 3.7% margin of sampling error.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What they&#8217;re saying: <\/strong>&#8220;I assume people will spend for Brian,&#8221; Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio) told Axios. &#8220;Max is losing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>CJ Warnke, a spokesperson for the Democratic-leadership aligned House Majority PAC, told Axios, &#8220;Brian Poindexter is going to flip OH-07, and HMP will do whatever it takes to make that happen.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;It&#8217;s a priority for us,&#8221; said Ravi Mangla, a spokesperson for the progressive Working Families Party, which endorsed Poindexter in the primary.<\/li>\n<li>The Next 50 and Iron Workers said in a joint statement: &#8220;Brian is building the coalition to win this race, and we&#8217;re behind him all the way.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The other side: <\/strong>&#8220;That&#8217;s all tough talk,&#8221; Miller told Axios in a text message, adding, &#8220;Why do you think they wanted me out so bad\u2026?&#8221;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Poindexter &#8220;isn&#8217;t going to win the general here,&#8221; Miller added. &#8220;You&#8217;ll see and I&#8217;ll be back.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>The National Republican Congressional Committee referred Axios to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2026\/08\/11\/national-democrats-step-up-support-rep-max-millers-opponent\/\" target=\"_blank\">Washington Post story<\/a> published last week about Republican voters in the district being unaware of the abuse allegations against Miller.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Democrat Brian Poindexter backs a radical far-left agenda that&#8217;s completely out of touch with northeast Ohio, and D.C. Democrats&#8217; support won&#8217;t save him this fall,&#8221; said NRCC spokesperson Zach Bannon.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democrats have gone from treating Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) as a best-case-scenario target to a genuinely vulnerable incumbent whose downfall is worth a real investment. Why it matters: Democratic groups tell Axios they plan to put their money where their mouth is and spend to win the seat, which Trump carried by double digits in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/Xr3sZeXC-Ih2TqHjWVB1hY8GkC4=\/0x168:4500x2700\/1366x768\/2026\/08\/11\/1786479107892.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}