Miller seeks reelection to Ohio’s 7th Congressional District

ASHLAND COUNTY — Voters in Ashland County will choose between four candidates seeking to represent them in Ohio’s 7th Congressional District.

Ashland County was previously included under Ohio’s 4th District. The Ohio Redistricting Commission in October 2025 adopted new federal congressional districts ahead of the beginning of the 2026 election cycle.

District 7 includes Ashland and Medina counties, along with portions of Wayne and Cuyahoga counties.

Candidates seeking to represent Ashland County in the 7th District include Republican incumbent Max Miller, Democrat Brian Poindexter and write-in candidates Andrey Martinichin and Thahbia Asad.

The winner will begin their term Jan. 3, 2027. It will expire Jan. 2, 2029.

Ashland Source recently conducted interviews with Miller, Poindexter and Martinichin using some of the questions developed by author and reporter Amanda Ripley as a way of cutting through conflict with questions that “complicate the narrative.”

Multiple messages were left by Ashland Source with Asad, but no responses to those requests were received.

Below is the balance of the conversation with Miller, which has been edited only for brevity and clarity.

Background: Miller is currently serving in his second term as the United States representative for Ohio’s 7th Congressional District. He was first elected to the position in November 2022 and again in November 2024. Prior to his time in Congress, Miller served as a senior advisor to President Donald Trump and spent six years in the Marine Corps Reserves. He is a graduate of Shaker Heights High School and earned his bachelor’s degree from Cleveland State University.

Miller has made state and national headlines amid abuse allegations from his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, daughter of Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio). According to reporting from NBC 4, Miller posted the following response to these allegations on X:

“I am going to file my own paperwork for an ethics investigation into myself to clear my name from these horrific attacks on myself and family,” Miller wrote on X. “I have absolutely nothing to hide.”

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Ashland Source Q&A with Miller:

Ashland Source: What issues do you think divide Ohioans the most these days?

Miller: The sad thing is, is that I actually don’t believe that there’s anything within the state that divides Ohioans. I would say that Ohio has a very good reputation of electing, in my opinion, very good senior leaders to the federal level, minus a couple here and there, in my opinion. But when you look back at senators like Rob Portman, in my opinion, who really was a great leader, I think that’s what most Ohioans want. I think, sadly, what divides most people just has to do with federal politics that have just been nationalized. Every single one of the, at least national outlets more so than anyone else, is always looking out to make the biggest buck. But that’s really what I think sadly divides Americans, is social media, news media in general, more of the big box channels that you see on TV that are worth billions of dollars. But anything really in Ohio, I really don’t see anything that truly divides Ohioans in general.

Ashland Source: Are there any answers that you think are being suggested by national politicians or elected officials from both sides of the aisle that are oversimplified or answers that sound really good, but are truly oversimplified?

Miller: I believe that the state of Ohio and the federal government has done a good job of cleaning up as much fraud as they possibly can do. And sadly, within everything, there’s always going to be a bad actor who’s going to do bad things. And I believe that the system that has been set up is the best system that’s available.

Ashland Source: Policies aside, it seems clear that Ohio voters and voters around the country are more divided than ever on some fundamental cultural principles. So where does all this distrust come from and how do we fix that?

Miller: It doesn’t stem from any one person. I am a big believer in rhetoric and rhetoric matters. When you have somebody, in my opinion, who can stand up there with a command presence and be a more calming presence than a dividing one, respectfully, I don’t believe that we have seen that within our country in the last 10 to 12 years. It’s been very unstable. We had President Trump then President Biden, back to President Trump. We haven’t seen a span of three one-term presidents in quite some time. I believe that once our country and the pendulum comes back down to the middle and we can really not go to the extremes of the primaries and elect what most people want — which is, I believe, a common-sense individual that just truly looks out for everyone’s best interests — I believe that that’s how we can tone down a lot of the division that’s within the country. Respectfully, it always does start at the top. And as I said respectfully, President Biden and President Trump, they aren’t unifiers.

Ashland Source: Is there any common ground to be found today between members of different parties? What will it take to return to a time in Congress when political opposites could be friends and even work together?

Miller: So like Tip O’Neill and Ronald Reagan? Because that’s, I mean, those were the days. And frankly, Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich in the early ’90s, when there was a Republican House for the first time in forever and Bill Clinton extended a hand out to the Republican majority and they were able to pass all 12 appropriations bills, which I don’t think has been done probably close since to that time. I’m in no labels, so that means that I have a bipartisan track record of legislation and working with the other side. We’re a lot closer than what people would believe in terms of coming together and working with one another because we already do it. The saddest thing is that a lot of it is taken out of context. I know we don’t broadcast these things, but as I said, I’m in no labels. I meet with Democrats while we’re in session every single day to either work on permitting reform or whether it’s going to be Middle East policy or whether it’s going to be working on a consolidation for the $40 trillion in debt that we’re in because the only way to address that is with both teams, right? We’re much closer to that than what people know and expect. The saddest thing is, which I’ll say again, is that we are driven on the national level, to the primary, to the extremes. And that’s what puts it so far out of whack, in my opinion.

Ashland Source: What would you want voters in the district to know about you that they may not know today?

Miller: I’m a guy who grew up in Northeast Ohio who graduated from Cleveland State University, decided to enlist to serve the country because of what I saw on 9/11 when I was in 6th grade or 7th grade. My track record in Congress, the most important thing to me, and the most proud accomplishments that I have, are our district offices and the claims that we file for our constituents because all of our constituents are my bosses. It’s not the other way around as a lot of other members see it. Taking care of veterans that need disability or need an appointment for either a life-saving surgery, or, you know, they’ve got a painful slipped disc in their back, getting that individual the help is the most rewarding feeling in the world. When you’re helping someone with healthcare, Medicare, Medicaid, I’m one of 17 Republicans who voted to extend the ACA and it’s not because I think it’s a good piece of legislation. I think it’s frankly crap, but we’re gonna end up paying a lot more for healthcare than we are just funding it to a certain extent.

Ashland Source: Are there any issues where you and your opponents see eye-to-eye? Is there anything you think one or several of them gets right?

Miller: Look, I want to be clear. I’m sure that there is. I’m not going to say that there isn’t. But I haven’t seen one policy from our opponent’s campaign, except, and I’m not just saying this except for slander — and frankly, I would like to see some policy because then I would have a better understanding of what our opponent’s plans for the district are in general — but the sad thing is that I can’t tell you because frankly everything that’s put out there isn’t anything about policy. It’s about attacking me in character issues. To answer your question, I’m sure that there is more than one policy that Mr. Poindexter and I agree on.

Ashland Source: What’s one thing that nobody’s asked you about or an issue that needs more light?

Miller: I truly believe that people have lost the understanding of how special our country really is. I believe that the vast majority of Americans take what we have for granted. We are still the greatest country in the world and I am not saying that being in poverty is okay whatsoever. I want everyone who is in poverty to get out of poverty. But our average American citizen in poverty does better than every other person in the world. And, frankly, I wish people would understand how great of a country we live in with the freedoms that we have. In my 37 years of life, I’ve been to Iraq (and) Afghanistan. I was in North Korea. I’ve been into a lot of scary countries and truly seeing the rights that we have within our country. When I was in Saudi Arabia with President Trump going back to 2017, they still had religious police there. Could you imagine (that) within our country? Now they don’t have that anymore, thankfully. But could you imagine within our country that you had religious police out in Ashland County, separating men from women, and then they had to be clothed and if, you know, you weren’t their husband then you would get whacked by a stick? I know that that’s maybe a bizarre analogy, but frankly, (the freedom to) walk out of your front door and say whatever you would like is something that you can’t do anywhere else and I just wish people would truly have that sense of gratitude that we really do live in the most special place in the world.

Ashland Source: What primary or early life events helped shape your views today?

Miller: It really was shaped by the Marine Corps. The Marine Corps taught me my left and right lateral limits on life. And not only that, it also taught me how to balance a checkbook. And I’m not joking. I never learned that. I went to high school, great. College, bachelor’s degree in history and I never took one class in all that higher education about financial literacy. It’s something that is a lost art and it really did give me the fundamentals and work ethic. From that point on, I got into politics and the first person I started to work for on the national level is Sen. Marco Rubio. A lot of people don’t know that, but I worked for Sen. Rubio as his body guy for just about 11 months. And then I went to go work for President Trump.

Ashland Source: What do you think the (national) media does wrong when it labels candidates ultra-conservative or ultra-liberal?

Miller: Well, I would say that sadly, I’m guilty of it and so is everybody. I see commercials that are out there, you know, saying that Max Miller is too conservative for the district and, you know, our opponents too liberal for the district. I think the fact of the matter is when you look at these things, the commercials are the commercials. I think all commercials are trash on both sides. Okay? I want to be clear. And I think on both sides, they’re very out of bounds and gross. But the only thing that our constituents need to look at just isn’t the commercials. As I said, the commercials are trash on both sides. They need to look at the endorsements of the candidates and who they’ve been endorsed by and they need to look at the track record. Now, lucky for me, I have a track record for the district that fits the district that I’ve been serving proudly and honorably and grateful for for the last almost four years of my life in two terms. Our opponent doesn’t have a track record other than his short time on city council in Brook Park. If you look at the endorsements, they are by the most progressive caucus in the Democrat Party, which is the DSA and Bernie Sanders. And to me, that speaks values. The commercials are one thing, whatever. But when you look into the actual specifics, like, ‘Hey, does this candidate, does Max or does his opponent, you know, whose values fit the district more?’ right? And that’s what this race is about. Lucky for me, I have a track record of supporting our district. I know Ashland’s new to the community that we have in the 7th, but that being said, I think that that’s where it’s going to be helpful.

Ashland Source: In this age of misinformation and disinformation, how do you decide which information to trust?

Miller: What I would say is that you have so much stuff out there about, you know, myself. You have so much stuff out there about my opponent and basically the political arena has turned into a food fight, where people truly — and I’m not just trying to go back to my previous answer — need to just go look at the candidate themselves and the track records of some of the policy positions. I’m not just saying this, like, I don’t know the policy positions of our opponent. I’m a guy who believes that everything between Newsmax and MS NOW is trash and you can quote that. I truly do. I have seen wild things about myself that, you know, look, if I was Elon Musk rich, then yeah, I could hold everyone accountable, but I am not. And sadly, it’s just the way of the world. It’s gotten to a place where I think people really just need to look at the track records of both candidates. They could look at his track record on city council for Brooke Park, that he voted for Flock cameras and things of that nature. And then they can take a look at my record in Congress and it’s a record that I’m proud of. We’ve been able to bring back more than $50 million for critical infrastructure and police and fire. Most recently, we got two new fire stations in Wayne County, which is a big win for our rural communities who truly need that. And we’ve been able to return, I believe, more than $30 million of money from the IRS back to our constituents’ pockets. The most important thing about this job is taking care of your constituents and delivering for them and that’s what I’m proud to say that we’ve been continuing to do. I know that everyone isn’t always going to agree with some of the votes that I take and that’s normal. I think if people agreed with me 10 out of 10 times, it’d be a little weird. I like the civil discourse.

Ashland Source: Anything else to add?

Miller: I’m a big proponent of technical education. The vast majority of my time in Congress has been focused on workforce development and technical education. In my first term, I donated 25 percent of my salary to the Medina Technical Educational Career Center and the Wayne County Career Center. In total, both schools received $43,500 and it was able to go towards their technical educational programs. And this year, we were able to get a benefactor, $100,000, to donate to the Wayne County Career Center to further technical education. Most recently, I’m proud to pass one of the first lady’s priorities in Congress a few months ago which is the Lincoln Chafee Foster Youth Act. What this bill does that we passed out of the House already is that for a long time, adult orphans until the age of 23 were only allowed to get a four-year education. But the saddest thing is that a lot of these individuals weren’t set up with the support system and structure to achieve a four-year. What we did is we amended it that they could also use the education training voucher to get a technical education. We’ve seen a massive uptick in this and the support system that’s in technical education is awesome, more so for individuals like this, and they thrive. It’s one of the things that I’m proud to put through and support and to give more opportunities to more people to get into the workforce.