Mike Carey fundraises with Max Miller as co-host amid House ethics probe into abuse allegations

When Ohio’s two Republican U.S. senators say a Republican congressman is unfit to serve, the ordinary political response is distance. What Rep. Mike Carey has done instead is put that congressman’s name on an invitation.

An invitation reviewed by TiffinOhio.net shows that House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith of Missouri and Rep. Max Miller of Ohio invited donors to an event supporting Carey today, Monday, Aug. 17, at the GBX Group offices at 2101 Superior Ave. in Cleveland. The schedule runs from a 4 p.m. chair committee reception through a 5 p.m. general reception and a 6:30 p.m. private dinner. Giving levels start at $500 for an attendee and climb to $25,000 for a seat on the chair committee. The invitation says the event is paid for by the Carey Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee that federal records confirm is registered with the Federal Election Commission.

Miller is the sitting congressman whose ex-wife, Emily Moreno, has accused him of throwing hot water at her, holding a gun to her head and fracturing their 2-year-old daughter’s collarbone. He denies every allegation. He has never been criminally charged, and prosecutors brought no charges in connection with the injury that prompted a police investigation. Earlier this month the House Ethics Committee announced it would review whether Miller may have “engaged in domestic violence and abuse or illegal drug use.” Miller requested that review himself.

Sen. Bernie Moreno, Miller’s former father-in-law, has said publicly that Miller is dangerous and should not serve in Congress. Sen. Jon Husted has called on him to resign. Neither man is a Democrat. Both are the sitting Republican senators from Miller’s own state, and both said what they said before this invitation went out.

Carey is not a bystander in this

It would be one thing if Carey were a rank-and-file member who happened to accept a check. He is not. Carey’s own campaign site describes him as a deputy whip and an NRCC co-chair — a member of the whip organization that counts Republican votes and an officer of the committee that exists to elect and protect Republican incumbents. He sits on Ways and Means with both Smith and Miller.

The money has also moved in both directions, in amounts that match almost to the dollar and dates that match almost to the day.

Federal Election Commission filings show Miller’s leadership PAC, the Dependable Conservative Leadership PAC, has given Carey for Congress $11,200 across four contributions: $2,900 in June 2022, $2,500 in March 2023, $800 in June 2023 and $5,000 in May 2025.

Carey’s own leadership PAC, Carry On PAC, has given Max Miller for Congress $11,200 across four contributions: $2,900 in June 2022, $2,500 in March 2023, $800 in June 2023 and $5,000 in June 2025.

Same amounts. Same three dates in 2022 and 2023. A $5,000 pair four days apart in the spring of 2025. This is not a donation Carey received and can shrug at. It is a standing arrangement between two members who have been funding each other for four years, and Carey is the one hosting.

Other Republicans have handled Miller’s money differently. Minnesota Rep. Brad Finstad’s campaign returned its $5,000. Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick’s campaign said it would give the money to charity. New York Rep. Mike Lawler said he is keeping his, arguing the allegations belong in family court. Carey has not been reported to have done any of the three. He scheduled a fundraiser, and it is tonight.

The third name on the invitation

Smith’s presence carries its own weight. As Ways and Means chairman he controls the committee Carey and Miller both sit on, and a chairman’s name at the top of an invitation is the most valuable thing a member can lend a colleague’s finance operation.

It is also worth knowing how Smith has voted on the federal law written for the people making the allegations in this case. Smith voted against final passage of the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act in April 2019 and again in March 2021. VAWA funds legal aid, emergency housing, victim advocacy and law enforcement training for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence and stalking. Both bills passed the House over his objection.

Carey and Miller were not in Congress for either vote. Smith was, twice.

What the party says versus what the party does

Speaker Mike Johnson has declined to push Miller out. Asked about the allegations, Johnson said, “The key word there is allegation,” and pointed to the Ethics Committee process. Miller himself has been blunter about where he thinks he stands. Speaking to CNN’s Jake Tapper, he said, “Speaker Mike Johnson, everyone else, they’re standing behind me.”

The Ohio Republican Party let the replacement deadline pass without a substitute candidate, locking Miller onto the November ballot. Vivek Ramaswamy, the party’s nominee for governor, has kept Miller listed among his endorsers, even after removing other endorsers within 48 hours of critical coverage. And through most of this, as TiffinOhio.net has reported, Ohio Republicans said very little at all.

That is a pattern, and the fundraiser is its logical end point. Silence is passive. Buying a ticket is not.

The nonpartisan Cook Political Report has moved Ohio’s 7th District from Solid Republican to Likely Republican to Toss Up in the space of a summer. That is the measurable cost of the party’s choice, and it is the only language in which this appears to register.

The part that isn’t about the horse race

While all of this has played out, Ohio’s domestic violence system has been failing the people it exists to serve. TiffinOhio.net reported Sunday that more than half of Ohio survivors seeking shelter last year were turned away, with centers in Miller’s own district reporting double-digit increases in demand. Constituents in that district have said plainly that they want consequences.

Those are the same survivors VAWA money reaches. The gap between a $25,000 chair committee seat in a renovated Cleveland warehouse and a shelter bed that does not exist is not a rhetorical flourish. It is a set of priorities, written down on an invitation with three congressmen’s names on it.

Carey is entitled to raise money from whomever he likes. Miller is entitled to the presumption of innocence, and this newsroom has said so in every piece it has published on him. But entitlement is not the question. The question is what a party does when its own senators say one of its members is unfit, and the answer, in Cleveland tonight, is to sell tickets.