Democrats did right by ditching Platner. How will Republicans handle Max Miller?

On June 29, I wrote that I could not stay silent about Graham Platner. I said, as a Democratic strategist, that character mattered more to me than a Senate majority, that a party willing to overlook it was choosing power over principle, and that Maine deserved better than a nominee whose fitness for office was in serious doubt.  

A week later, Platner dropped out. Democratic delegates in Maine replaced him on the ballot. The system worked exactly as it was designed to work: an accusation was taken seriously, a party looked hard at itself, and it acted before Election Day made the right decision. 

I did not write that piece because it was easy. I wrote it because if character is going to mean anything in our politics, it has to mean something even when the person under scrutiny is on your own side. I still believe that.  

Which is why I cannot watch what is happening in Ohio’s 7th District and say nothing. 

Rep. Max Miller is running for a third term in a district Donald Trump carried by 11 points in 2024. Six months ago, that seat was not on anyone’s competitive list. It is now, because Miller’s ex-wife, Emily Moreno, has alleged in court filings and police reports that Miller assaulted her, threw scalding water on her, and pointed a gun at her, and that their toddler daughter suffered a fractured collarbone and bruising while in his care. 

A former girlfriend, Stephanie Grisham, who served as White House press secretary in the first Trump administration, has separately alleged he was physically abusive during their relationship years earlier. A 2021 Politico investigation, based on interviews with dozens of people, reported that Miller pushed a young woman down a flight of stairs in high school after she rebuffed him. Miller denies all of it and says he would be in jail if any of it were true. 

What made this impossible to ignore was not just the accusations. It was who finally said out loud that they mattered. Emily Moreno’s father is Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio. On Sunday, after Miller posted a video defending himself, Sen. Moreno said........

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