Ramaswamy breaks silence on Max Miller, supports him fully: Preserving GOP control is ‘most important’

For six weeks, Vivek Ramaswamy would not say what he thought about Max Miller. On Saturday, at a campaign event in Columbus, a voter walked up and thanked him for standing by the congressman, and Ramaswamy finally gave an answer. It was not about the allegations. It was about the majority.

“I’m supporting everyone up and down the ticket,” the Republican nominee for Ohio governor said, according to a recording obtained by TiffinOhio.net. Asked directly whether he would campaign alongside Miller, he changed the subject to where the voter grew up, and then came back to it: “this is the most important election for preserving Republican control of the House, the Senate, and also protecting the Republican control of the state. If we compromise that, we’re done.”

That is a rationale, and it is the first one he has offered. It is worth being precise about what it covers.

What is on the other side of the ledger

Miller’s ex-wife, Emily Moreno, is the daughter of U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio. In police reports and court filings, she has said Miller held a gun to her head, threw hot water from a skillet at her body and scalded her chest and stomach, and pushed her against a wall. CNN obtained a recording of her February police interview through a public records request. An officer asked her what Miller did with the gun. “Holds it on me,” she answered.

The couple’s 2-year-old daughter turned up with a fractured collarbone. Detectives, a county Division of Children and Family Services caseworker and a Cleveland Clinic physician met in March to go over it. A detective who summarized the meeting wrote that bruising around the fracture made the injury suspicious, and that someone on the call said it would have taken a high degree of impact. A child protection specialist described the bruising near the fracture as resembling a handprint.

Two other women have accused Miller of physical violence.

Then there is the part that is not an allegation. On Aug. 2, during a roughly 20-minute livestream on X defending himself, Miller posted a link to a public Dropbox folder of records assembled by his attorney, Aaron Minc. Inside it was an unredacted nude photograph of his 2-year-old daughter. The same document carried the child’s name, unredacted, more than 70 times. Emily Moreno’s lawyers said the post had drawn more than 204,000 views by the following afternoon.

Minc has admitted he released the file and apologized. He called it completely unintentional and said he corrected it Monday morning. He has also told reporters the image did not show the child’s genitals and that she was shirtless. A federal lawsuit filed on Aug. 12 on the child’s behalf, against Miller, Minc and Minc’s firm, says a pediatrician reviewed the photograph and found otherwise.

Subodh Chandra, the lead lawyer on that case, put it this way: “This child is an entirely innocent victim who has become collateral damage to her father’s political ambition.”

Bernie Moreno, the child’s grandfather, was blunter. “When he went out and did what he did — including releasing photos of my granddaughter completely naked — now you have hundreds of thousands of psychotic human beings that have that. To say oops is grotesque,” he told reporters. “My personal opinion is that this is a felony, and that every single human being that touched that photo and transmitted it electronically should go to jail because it is illegal to do that.”

What Miller says

Miller denies all of it. He has never been criminally charged in connection with any of the allegations.

Prosecutors did not bring charges after concluding there was insufficient admissible evidence to take to a grand jury, according to police records. A child welfare agency deemed two reports that he abused his daughter unsubstantiated; a third recorded an “indicated” finding of physical abuse, meaning investigators saw signs of abuse but could not determine who caused it. Miller has said the bruising on his daughter resembled marks from a car seat strap. He acknowledged spraying his ex-wife with a kitchen sink sprayer during a 2024 argument but said the water was not scalding, said he did not mean to hurt her, and called it “horseplay.” He denies drug use and has offered to be tested. He sued Emily Moreno for defamation.

He also asked the House Ethics Committee to investigate him. It agreed on Aug. 4, saying it was reviewing allegations he may have engaged in domestic violence and abuse or illegal drug use, and noting that opening a review does not itself indicate any violation occurred. “I have absolutely nothing to hide,” Miller wrote.

The same logic, the opposite answer

Ramaswamy is not the only Republican who framed this around the majority. He is the only prominent one who got to a different conclusion.

Sen. Tim Sheehy, a Montana Republican, wrote on Aug. 6: “What kind of person would treat their daughter this way? This guy is clearly a degenerate sociopath. Max should step aside and seek help. Staying in this race makes it far more likely we lose this seat and hand Democrats a majority to impeach President Trump.”

Same premise. Same stakes. Opposite instruction.

Bernie Moreno had already gotten there on Aug. 2. “As he has admitted privately, Max Miller needs serious psychological help,” he wrote. “He is a danger to my daughter, and I hold my breath every minute he has custody of my granddaughter. If there are any basic standards of character required to hold elected office, Max Miller fails them. He should not serve in the House of Representatives. I believe Max Miller needs to seek professional help to end the clear pattern of abuse he has left in his wake. I believe he should not be free to continue endangering others until he does.”

Sen. Jon Husted, who faces former Sen. Sherrod Brown on Nov. 3, followed on Aug. 6. “Anyone who commits domestic violence is not fit to serve in Congress,” he wrote. “The House Ethics Committee should thoroughly investigate any credible allegations, and any member found to have committed domestic violence should resign from Congress immediately.” He added: “I believe Max would be making the right decision to step aside as a candidate and resign from Congress to focus on what is in the best interest of his daughter.”

Both senators are listed as endorsers of Ramaswamy. So is Miller. All three names sit on the same page, which was still live and unchanged when TiffinOhio.net fetched it Tuesday.

The page is easy to edit. We know because they edited it.

“Rep. Max Miller” appears under “Ohio Congressional Delegation,” listed with Reps. Dave Taylor, Jim Jordan, Michael Rulli and Warren Davidson.

In April, TiffinOhio.net reported that Ramaswamy’s campaign was promoting the endorsement of state Rep. Rodney Creech (R-West Alexandria), who was accused by a minor female relative of climbing into bed with her while erect and wearing only his underwear, according to Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation documents. Creech denied wrongdoing and was never charged. Within two days his name was gone. It has never come back. A string search of the live page Tuesday returned no result for Creech.

State Rep. Gary Click (R-Vickery) came off in the same edit and was back within roughly two hours of the removal being reported. He is on the page today.

So the campaign can move a name in under a business day. It has done it twice. What it has not done, in three weeks of a House ethics review, a federal lawsuit filed on behalf of a toddler, and two of its own endorsing senators calling for the man to quit Congress, is move this one.

None of that is silence anymore. Silence was the Aug. 5 answer, when reporters caught Ramaswamy at the Ohio State Fair and he said he wished everybody’s family well and that his prayers were with the granddaughter involved in that situation. That was all he would give them. Saturday was different. Saturday he gave a reason.

What it is worth

The deadline to replace Miller on the November ballot passed Aug. 10 with no substitute filed. He is the Republican nominee against Democrat Brian Poindexter, and he has said there is no chance he removes himself. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report moved the district to Toss Up this month. U.S. Rep. Mike Carey held a fundraiser co-hosted by Miller after the ethics review opened.

Meanwhile, the super PAC whose stated purpose is electing Ramaswamy has twice put his opponent’s childhood sexual abuse on Ohio television. Amy Acton disclosed on a 1994 medical licensure application that she had sought therapy after being abused as a child. Ohio removed that question from the form because it discouraged people from getting treatment.

That is the arrangement as it stands 10 weeks out. An abuse survivor running for governor is fair game for the airwaves. A congressman accused by three women, under House ethics review, and sued over a nude photograph of his own 2-year-old, keeps his spot on the endorsement list.

A voter asked Ramaswamy on Saturday whether he would go campaign with Max Miller. He never answered that. He answered a question nobody asked, about what he thinks is at stake in November, and in doing so he told Ohio what he is willing to carry to get there.