On Monday afternoon, Republican leaders on Capitol Hill confronted two similar problems: Two of their members, both of whom are facing tough re-election fights, are caught up in awful scandals.

The first is Republican Rep. Max Miller of Ohio, who has faced domestic violence allegations from his ex-wife and bipartisan calls for his ouster, while the other is Republican Rep. Chuck Edwards of North Carolina, who confronted a brutal report from the House Ethics Committee over alleged violations of congressional sexual harassment policies.

In both instances, GOP officials have pressed the members to end their re-election campaigns, if for no other reason than to help the party in a challenging midterm elections cycle. The appeals persuaded Edwards, who ended his candidacy early Wednesday.

Miller is taking a very different approach. The New York Times reported:

When President Trump called Representative Max Miller, his former loyal aide, to warn him the domestic abuse allegations he was facing would make it tough for him to win re-election, Republican officials at the White House and in Ohio hoped it would be enough to get the embattled congressman to drop out.

But Mr. Trump stopped short of asking Mr. Miller to step aside, and the congressman made it clear he had no intention of doing so, according to two people familiar with the Monday call who spoke on the condition of anonymity about a confidential conversation, which was reported earlier by Axios.

Under Ohio’s election laws, today is the deadline to replace the congressman on the ballot. While many in his party clearly hope he will follow Edwards’ example, Miller has given every indication that he’s staying in the race.

Indeed, the GOP incumbent appears eager to go on the offensive, voluntarily requesting an Ethics Committee investigation into the domestic violence allegations he has long denied — on Tuesday afternoon, the panel took him up on the offer — and taking his pitch to the public by way of an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, which was a bit of a trainwreck.

That said, his scandals are far from over. Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, who was in a romantic relationship with Miller when they both worked for Donald Trump in the president’s first term, filed for a temporary restraining order against him this week, alleging that he had violated terms of a settlement they reached after he sued her for defamation over an op-ed in The Washington Post in which she wrote about an abusive former boyfriend.

Nevertheless, House Speaker Mike Johnson is backing Miller’s re-election bid, and while the president has expressed concern about the Ohio Republican’s campaign prospects, he still hasn’t called for Miller to step down. And on Tuesday night, Trump told reporters that he feels “badly” for the congressman.

Barring an eleventh-hour change of heart, Miller will face Brian Poindexter, an ironworker and Brook Park city councilman, in November. Watch this space.

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