{"id":1000203,"date":"2026-08-14T12:11:48","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T12:11:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1000203\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T12:11:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T12:11:48","slug":"rep-mike-lawler-facing-tough-ny-reelection-battle-refuses-to-return-max-miller-donation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1000203\/","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Mike Lawler, facing tough NY reelection battle, refuses to return Max Miller donation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-New York) Thursday refused to return $10,000 in recent campaign donations from Rep. Max Miller<\/a>, the embattled Ohio Republican who\u2019s facing intense scrutiny over domestic violence allegations.<\/p>\n

Digging in his heels, Lawler vowed he won\u2019t return the money from Miller<\/a> until and unless the allegations, including claims by his father-in-law and fellow GOP Sen. Bernie Moreno, are aired in court.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of allegations leveled,\u201d Lawler said in a contentious interview with CNN\u2019s Dana Bash.<\/a> \u201cIt\u2019s tragic but it\u2019s something that should play out in family court.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately there\u2019s nothing that\u2019s been corroborated here,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Lawler himself faces a very tough reelection battle as Democrats seek to retake the House<\/a> from Trump\u2019s GOP in the November midterms. He faces a challenge from Cait Conley, a military veteran and political moderate in the Westchester County-based suburban district.<\/p>\n

Lawler is one of only three Republicans who won districts that Trump lost, underlining his vulnerability as the president\u2019s approval ratings hit historic lows. Still, he\u2019s viewed as a politically formidable force who has a good chance of bucking the political odds.<\/a><\/p>\n

In his interview, Lawler pointed fingers at Democrats for making political hay<\/a> out of the accusations against Miller, including claims by his ex-wife that he was responsible for the couple\u2019s young daughter breaking her collarbone while in his care and using her beloved stuffed bunny rabbit<\/a> as a pawn in their feud.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that Democrats have made this a political issue, it\u2019s wrong,\u201d Lawler said. \u201cThis is the typical Washington media game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miller, a former White House aide to President Trump, is running for a third term representing the OH-07 district,<\/a> a fairly safe Republican district south of Cleveland that voted for Trump by 11% in 2024.<\/p>\n

\"WASHINGTON,Rep. Max Miller (R-OH) leaves a House Republican Caucus meeting on Capitol Hill on Nov. 19, 2024 in Washington. (Photo by Andrew Harnik\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

His reelection campaign has been rocked by the allegations made by his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, and her senator dad, who says Miller is unfit to serve in Congress.<\/a><\/p>\n

But Miller insists he won\u2019t pull the plug on his reelection battle and blew off a Monday deadline for GOP leaders to replace him<\/a> on the November ballot in a race that is now seen as a toss-up against Democratic iron worker Brian Poindexter.<\/p>\n

So far, only one Republican lawmaker, Minnesota Rep. Brad Finstad, has returned donations made by Miller\u2019s political action committee. Most have dodged questions about Miller,<\/a> unlike Lawler.<\/p>\n

Conley called on Lawler to return the $10,000<\/a> Miller gave this political cycle, along with $7,000 in past donations from him.<\/p>\n

\u201cMike Lawler\u2019s refusal to condemn domestic abuser Max Miller and return $17,000 in donations from him is disqualifying,\u201d Conley tweeted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rep. Mike Lawler (R-New York) Thursday refused to return $10,000 in recent campaign donations from Rep. Max Miller,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1000204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,170326,400521,32551,69,400520,22809,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,1573,7047,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,54665],"class_list":["post-1000203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-bernie-moreno","tag-cait-conley","tag-domestic-violence","tag-donald-trump","tag-max-miller","tag-mike-lawler","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-ohio","tag-republican","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-westchester"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117093804849658876","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1000203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1000204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1000203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1000203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1000203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}