'I Will Support Anyone With an R': The House GOP's No. 4 Backs Max Miller Anyway

House Republican Conference Chair Lisa McClain was asked on Sunday whether she would back Rep. Max Miller's reelection given what his ex-wife has accused him of. She did not hedge and she did not narrow it. "I will support anyone with an R" behind their name, the Michigan congresswoman said on CBS's "Face the Nation," adding that Miller is "our nominee right now."

The allegations are not vague. Emily Moreno, Miller's ex-wife and the daughter of Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio, sought a restraining order in July describing verbal and physical abuse over the course of the marriage. In the filing she alleged that Miller threw boiling water at her, pointed a gun at her, and threw her against a wall. She also alleged he injured their two-year-old daughter.

Miller has denied all of it. In an August livestream, the congressman said the accusations had been "already investigated" and that he "cooperated fully," and he released a set of documents intended to rebut his ex-wife's account. That release went badly: it included material that should not have been made public, and the episode became its own news cycle.

McClain and Speaker Mike Johnson have both stayed with Miller. A number of other Republicans have not. Sens. Katie Britt of Alabama, Jim Banks of Indiana and John Husted of Ohio have all called on him to withdraw. Sen. Moreno, speaking about his daughter, said she "lives in constant fear" and that his former son-in-law "should not serve" in Congress — an extraordinary statement from a sitting senator about a member of his own party in his own state.

The split is a math problem as much as a moral one. Republicans hold the House by a handful of seats, and Miller's district in northeast Ohio is one they expect to keep as long as they hold the ballot line. Pushing him out now, two months from the election and after the filing deadline, would mean either running a wounded incumbent anyway or conceding a seat the party cannot spare. McClain's answer was simply the unvarnished version of that calculation.

Democrats have made the case that the answer is itself the story. A conference chair saying she will support anyone with an R next to their name is a line that writes its own attack ad, and House Democrats began circulating the clip within minutes of the broadcast. Miller's race, which Republicans expected to ignore, is now one of the ones getting talked about on Sunday shows.