Sipping on an iced caramel latte with whipped cream and talking about “squadding up” with his daughters on Fortnite, Brian Poindexter doesn’t necessarily fit the stereotype of a “manly man,” which is how another magazine characterized the congressional candidate in mid-July.
For what it’s worth, it’s his political opponent, Republican Rep. Max Miller, who recently testified about taking testosterone and frequenting half-a-dozen different gyms. Whatever muscles Poindexter has, he confirms, are the result of 19 years spent placing rebar and erecting the steel skeletons of buildings, and before that, working as a cross-country mover for people with too much Ethan Allen furniture.
“I figured out what armoire is French for,” he told me at a coffee shop in late August. “Heavy as heck.”
With a hearty catalogue of dad jokes, Poindexter is running for a seat representing northeastern Ohio as an inversion of Miller, an heir to a real estate fortune whose campaign has been overshadowed by serious domestic disputes in his personal life. So despite being divorced himself, Poindexter is positioning himself as a family man who has paid his dues helping his blue-collar community of Brook Park as a city council member for the past nine years.
He begins our interview by telling me about his kids: His oldest daughter is 25. She works in accounting, and is—he’s excited to share—newly engaged. He has another daughter who is 19, a college sophomore studying nursing. (By the way, did I know the Trump administration tried to remove nursing from the professional degree list? “Kind of upsetting. Nurses are very much professionals,” he said.) Poindexter’s long-term partner (he got divorced in 2022) also has a high-schooler whom Poindexter calls his “bonus daughter.”
“Everyone knows me as a father of two daughters, but I want to make sure I include her because she’s a good kid and I’m proud of her too,” said Poindexter.
I haven’t met them, but I’ve seen them star in an advertisement for their dad. They call him “dorky,” make fun of his dance moves, and thank him for being a present community member and parent. “He always shows up… For family dinner. For games. For help with homework—even when he’s not helpful,” the three girls say, laughing.
Poindexter is running as an inversion of Miller, an heir to a real estate fortune whose campaign has been overshadowed by serious domestic disputes in his personal life.
It is an unsubtle rebuke of Miller, whose ex-wife, Emily Moreno, has accused him of throwing boiling water at her, holding a gun against her head, and shoving her against a wall. According to court filings Mother Jones reported on extensively in July, some of these alleged incidents occurred in front of their child. The documents also showed that Moreno was worried that Miller could have caused their two-year-old’s broken collarbone. She told police their daughter was in Miller’s custody when the injury happened. Child abuse investigators said the bruising near the injury resembled a “handprint,” making the injury “suspicious.” Miller had previously been accused of slapping a girlfriend, and pushing a girl down the stairs while in high school. Accusations that would give many parents pause.
Miller has repeatedly denied having ever been violent towards women or his child, and the investigation into possible child abuse was ultimately “unsubstantiated.” But for a moment, over the summer, the series of allegations seemed like they might force him out of the race. His former father-in-law and fellow Ohio Republican, Sen. Bernie Moreno, said Miller “should not serve in the House of Representatives” and that he needed “serious psychological help.”
As evidence of Miller’s alleged depravity, Sen. Moreno accused Miller of withholding a stuffed animal from a toddler. “My granddaughter, she has a little blue bunny that she sleeps with. Max would not hand over the little blue bunny. Literally held it hostage for 48 hours,” Moreno told reporters. “This girl is crying at night because she can’t sleep without her little blue bunny. And his answer is, ‘I’m just not going to give it to you.’” (Miller called Moreno’s characterization “lies,” but Mother Jones obtained texts showing there were multiple incidents in which Miller withheld the stuffed animal.)
When Miller declined to drop out in time for another Republican to replace him on the ballot, Cook Political Report shifted the race from “likely Republican” to “toss-up” in a region that Trump and Miller both won handily in 2024. The odds were suddenly looking much better for Poindexter, who had launched his long-shot campaign out of the garage of his buddy-turned-campaign-manager. Though far from an indication of how people in the district tend to vote, Polymarket shows 89 percent of wagerers think Poindexter will win. A poll from early August showed Poindexter ahead of Miller by 8 points. David Niven, a political science professor at the University of Cincinnati, called the race a “tremendous lesson in the importance of candidate quality.”
“Republicans should be strong, and they have the most loathed incumbent in probably Ohio congressional history running on the Republican banner,” Niven said.
But back in late August, Poindexter was increasingly worried that the Miller controversy could wind up hurting him. What was once a low-profile race between a small town’s city council member and a well-resourced incumbent was now a frequent topic on CNN. The extra attention invited powerful Republicans to come to Miller’s defense—and eventually, dredge up things from Poindexter’s past.
The White House pleaded for House Republicans not to wage a “public pressure campaign” against Miller. President Donald Trump, whom Miller worked for as a campaign and White House aide, called Miller a “good guy.” House Speaker Mike Johnson demurred when asked if he thought the allegations of physical abuse were disqualifying. “People have domestic disputes. It’s part of being flawed humans, as we are,” the Louisiana Republican told Politico.
“I hope he wins reelection. He’s done a good job as a member of Congress,” said Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).
Of course, people outside the district weighed in to support Poindexter too. When we spoke, I brought up a new advertisement by the anti-Trump Lincoln Project. The one-minute spot featured an ominous voice flipping through screengrab after screengrab of court documents and headlines that detailed the serious allegations Miller faces, concluding that he’s a “domestic abuser” who “belongs in jail.”
I had sort of expected Poindexter to be pleased by their marketing work; a group founded by Republicans who rebuked Trump was spending $20,000 to batter his Republican opponent. The video cost Poindexter and his campaign $0. Since he didn’t make the advertisement, he didn’t even have to worry about a potential defamation lawsuit from his highly litigious opponent. But Poindexter seemed dejected.
“I did see the ad and I’m not a fan,” the 47-year-old Democrat told me. “What I don’t want to happen is make this a bigger fight. Then they start dumping resources into it.”
By “they,” Poindexter meant moneyed interests. And he was right. The Congressional Leadership Fund and National Republican Congressional Committee quickly got involved, dumping more than $5 million into the district in the final months of the contest.
Those millions were largely spent on media buys painting Poindexter as the dangerous one. At least two ads focused on a police report from the 1990s, which alleged Poindexter tried to “swallow a rock of suspected crack cocaine during a police stop.” One of the ads characterized that incident as part of a “30-year rap sheet for drugs and violence” with charges as recent as this year. Another said Poindexter “wants to go from crack to Congress.” (Poindexter’s campaign notes that he has taken random drug tests for the last 20 years as a union ironworker and never failed one.)
The “crack” allegation stems from a 1998 police report in which Poindexter, then 18, was accused by cops of swallowing what they suspected to be crack cocaine. The officer specified in the police report that past drug-related complaints in the area made them give “special attention” to the block. That’s when they saw Poindexter in his car. They went up to his window, at which point, he allegedly tried to swallow something.
“I tried to recover the objects and the [adult male] struggled to prevent me. We fell to the ground at which time I recovered the above rock of susp. Crack cocaine from the ground near his mouth,” the report says. Though Poindexter was arrested and taken into custody, he wasn’t ultimately charged with a crime. That’s because, he says, “I absolutely did not do that.”
“I did see the ad and I’m not a fan. What I don’t want to happen is make this a bigger fight. Then they start dumping resources into it.”
Former Brook Park mayor Mike Gammella, who worked with Poindexter on the city council, began laughing when I asked him about the police report’s characterization.
“Brian grew up hard. Brian didn’t grow up with a silver spoon in his mouth,” said Gammella, who was elected as an independent the same year Poindexter joined the council. “They mentioned he was in a crack-infested neighborhood. Well, guess what? That’s the neighborhood he grew up in.”
Mother Jones reviewed Poindexter’s legal records dating back three decades. Poindexter faced charges for other violations in the ’90s and early 2000s: In 1999, when he was 20, he received a citation for carrying an open container in Pinellas County, Florida. In 2000, at age 21, Poindexter received two citations for possession of marijuana (under 100 grams). He pleaded guilty to alcohol-related disorderly conduct in 2002. Although Cuyahoga County has since destroyed the physical files under standard retention rules, archival remnants indicate he spent a brief time in custody. A year later, a 24-year-old Poindexter was charged with “aggravated disorderly conduct.” He was found guilty of a lesser misdemeanor and paid a $250 fine. In 2013, Poindexter was removed from a Major League Baseball game after allegedly slapping a stranger. That man told the Washington Free Beacon that the slap was over a comment the man made about Poindexter’s apparent ability to eat a hot dog in one bite. Poindexter was not convicted; the man he was accused of slapping declined to press charges.
Poindexter’s next brush with the law came a decade later, in 2023, when he pleaded guilty to a charge of setting off fireworks illegally over Fourth of July weekend. Ironically, as a member of the Brook Park City Council, he had previously voted against allowing fireworks in city limits. This year, Poindexter received two traffic violations for failing to leave enough distance from the car in front of him and texting while driving—a first-time offense.
Poindexter chalks many of these indiscretions up to being “young and dumb,” which is how Miller also characterized a series of incidents in his youth: punching a guy in the back of the head and running from the cops (2007), breaking a window at an apartment building (2008), crashing his car into a light pole (2011) with ecstasy and Klonopin in his system. In another, previously unreported police report that I obtained, Miller was said to have been caught smoking weed and then running from the cops while at University of Arizona’s freshman orientation in 2007.
Miller never responded to Mother Jones’ questions about these events. He previously told the Washington Post that, “growing up, everyone makes mistakes.”
For his part, Poindexter eventually fired back at the negative ads with his own aggressive blitz in September and October. One 30-second clip features an Ohio Sheriff saying she would not support Miller because of the serious allegations he faces. “Thirty-four years in law enforcement tells me Max Miller does not belong in power,” Summit County Sheriff Kandy Fatheree said. A later ad from Poindexter’s campaign focused entirely on the blue bunny saga, quoting Sen. Moreno, who called the debacle “the seventh layer of hell.”
But when I followed Poindexter on the trail, he didn’t want to go there. Emulating Sen. Bernie Sanders, who endorsed Poindexter in March, the candidate was focused on the cost of living, which is also what 64 percent of Ohio voters ranked as a top-two issue in a recent poll. It was the only thing he covered in his stump speech.
“Does anybody in here feel like the economy is doing great? How about gas prices?” he asked the 30 to 40 people sitting in a bonus room of the Bedford Branch public library. “How about the grocery store? You guys feel comfortable going to the grocery? I mean, I don’t know about you all, but I have experience putting things back on the shelves.”
Poindexter is doing better than many in his district. His union job as an ironworker and side gig as a Brook Park city councilman are stable—netting him $110,350 in 2025, according to his House financial disclosure form—though his attire doesn’t necessarily reflect a six-figure income. The tops of his gray Nikes have holes and the back pocket on his stained and faded blue jeans is permanently imprinted with the outline of his wallet.
As one of six kids raised on the west side of Cleveland by a bolt-maker and a stay-at-home mom, Poindexter says he’s never been accustomed to fancy things. As Poindexter tells it, vacations growing up were spent camping, and clothes were all hand-me-downs.
“We didn’t have everything, but we had the basics in life: You know, a strong family unit, a roof over our head. We knew we were going to eat every day,” he said.
It’s another way he differs from Miller, who is an heir to a real estate empire that sold to an international conglomerate for $11.4 billion in 2018. Miller now lives in the wealthy enclave of Bay Village, which runs along the southern shore of Lake Erie. Its annual per capita income of $69,148 is nearly double that of the industrial suburb near the airport where Poindexter lives, 12 miles southeast.
Poindexter says he’s running for office because the math—even to replicate his modest childhood—just doesn’t add up in his area anymore.
“I don’t know anybody who has six kids right now, and if they do, they’re not doing it on one income,” he said.
Miller has leaned on Sanders’ endorsement of Poindexter to characterize his opponent as a “socialist” who wants “higher taxes and government-run healthcare.” But Poindexter’s populism is less in-your-face. When asked about his views on implementing Medicare for All at an August event, he was non-committal, promising to look at how any proposed legislation on the issue would affect Ohioans first. “I don’t know if I could support that,” he said.
He told me his initial goal was merely to prevent his neighbors from having to turn to crowdfunding for medical emergencies. “We’re in the richest country on the planet, and we got to pay for medical bills through a GoFundMe. I think that’s way out of touch,” he said.
Far from advocating for a sweeping social safety net, Poindexter said his primary objective for his own daughters is for them to “find a career they love, find something that helps provide for them and brings them security.”
When Poindexter’s two biological daughters were growing up, he said that he and his ex-wife didn’t always have that. On top of his full-time job, he said he worked part-time as a bar-back at a Cleveland night club. His ex-wife worked full time as a chef, mostly during evenings and weekends. The two were like ships in the night. And when they did see each other? “We were arguing over, ‘This bill didn’t get paid, this didn’t get done.’ And it really drove us apart as time went on,” he said.
“That’s what ultimately led to our separation,” he said of his 2022 divorce.
At the time, the split caught Gammella, the former town mayor, by surprise. “When he came in and told me he was in a divorce, I was floored, you know, because I liked his ex-wife. They got along great. I never saw him arguing or fighting or anything like that. I thought he was an excellent father to his children,” Gammella said.
I really wanted to check in with her, but she didn’t respond to my messages. However, as was the case with Miller, there were divorce and child custody legal filings I could look through for clues. The public records were concise. The two shared custody of their younger daughter who was 15 at the time. Their other daughter was, by then, an adult. Poindexter would cover the minor’s health insurance and cell phone bill and contribute to her future college education.
Mutually, they agreed to “treat the child as a unique person with respect to feelings and needs” and “provide the child with an emotional environment in which she is free to continue to love each parent and to spend time with each of them.”
I hadn’t received records from the Cuyahoga County clerk when I spoke to Poindexter in August. But the contents resembled something he said during our interview—about what it means to be “manly” in such a machismo world.
“When my daughters come home with a broken heart or a bumped knee, I don’t have to be super macho. It’s okay to pamper your girls and show them that the world isn’t all brass and crass all the time,” he told me. “I don’t know where we went wrong in society, where we think that being a jerk is showing masculinity. It just tells me you’re an asshole, and I think if you look at any real tough guy, they take care of the people that need taken care of.”