Shocking domestic and child abuse allegations against Republican Representative Max Miller attracted national attention to Ohio’s 7th district race. Voters are disgusted with Miller and frustrated with MAGA’s empty promises, opening up a path to victory for Democratic candidate Brian Poindexter.
Fresh off a press conference about rising healthcare costs in Ohio, Poindexter joined Tim from the scene. The pair discuss Poindexter’s experience as an ironworker and union member, Ohioans’ pain from Trump’s tariffs and expanded Medicare and Medicaid as a policy priority.
Brian Poindexter is the Democratic nominee for Congress in Ohio’s 7th district. Since 2007, Brian has been a proud union Ironworker.
The following transcript has been edited for formatting purposes.
Tim Dickinson
Hey, this is Tim Dickinson, senior editor here at the Contrarian. I’m here with Brian Poindexter, who’s the Democratic nominee for Congress in Ohio’s 7th District. Brian, welcome!
Brian Poindexter
Tim, thanks for having me. Happy to be here.
Tim Dickinson
Well, Brian, your district is infamous for its incumbent, Max Miller, who has been accused of really dreadful domestic abuse. He denies it, although his ex-father-in-law, Bernie Moreno, the senator, has said he’s totally disqualified as a matter of character for running for Congress. So, this has given you an opening, but I want to hear from you about what it is that makes your candidacy appealing to people in this district.
Brian Poindexter
Well, like, like a member of Congress, I’m gonna stand up for my district, and I’m gonna stand up for my district right now, and say, we cannot brush the entire district with the accusations and allegations against Max Miller. He’s shown time and time and again that he’s not representative of this district, not only in his personal life, but also in the votes that he’s taken in Congress. And yeah, we, we have real opportunity because we are running on a message that is uniting people all across this district. Putting workers first. I see Democrats, Independents, and Republicans all coming together, because we’re all being buried under the weight of an economy that’s out of balance, that benefits the upper echelon in our society, and people are tired of it, and we’re ready to make change, and they’re eager to support me, and we’re gonna win in November.
Tim Dickinson
You come from the trades, you’re an iron worker, a union member, you’re talking about healthcare today, but I wonder, what is that perspective of the working class? You know, there’s not a lot of that in Congress. What are you hoping to bring, and what do you think that will help you accomplish in Congress that other folks maybe don’t have that perspective, or… Yeah.
Brian Poindexter
You said it. You said it right there. The strength I bring to this campaign and to and what I’ll bring to Washington is my perspective. I have a lifetime of lived experience where you know I know what it’s like to work and live paycheck to paycheck and I know what it means when you don’t make it to the next paycheck and and and too many families across this district, across this state, across this country are living that same reality. And you know the politicians in Washington are completely out That’s what we’re going through. And they keep doubling down and tripling down on trickle-down economics. We just saw the one big beautiful bill that was one of the largest transfers of wealth from the bottom to the top. And, you know, people… people see that, and… and, you know, they’re no longer gonna be divided by partisan lines. You know, I’m somebody who… who… you know. people can relate to, because I am just like them. Whether they’re, you know, Republicans or have voted Republican in the past, they’re seeing in me somebody who more resembles them. And that’s what I bring, you know? Any bill that comes across the desk. I’m going to be looking at it through the lens of a working person, a real down-to-earth, pragmatic view, something that’s been missing in Washington for quite a long time.
Tim Dickinson
Well, let’s talk about, I mean, Max Miller is easy to sort of disqualify as a matter of character, but what has he done as a congressman that really has hurt the district or not put it on the right footing?
Brian Poindexter
Oh, there’s a whole laundry list of things, but, you know, top of mind is, you know, his support for the blanket tariffs that’s driven up costs in the grocery store and in our, in all the stores across the, across the state. He’s, he’s supported the one big beautiful bill, which is gonna cut, over a trillion dollars out of health… out of the healthcare system, and it… and its support for, you know. just kind of leaning into, all of the other proposals, like the war in Iran, and all the erratic, chaotic things that this administration is doing. And, every one of them has driven up costs and made it harder on working families.
Tim Dickinson
Now, a lot of working families, particularly in Ohio, have voted for Trump in recent years, and your district runs red. So what kind of message do you bring to people that gives them some assurance that the Democratic Party is someplace they can find a foothold?
Brian Poindexter
Well, when you, when you remember back to 2016 when Trump came on scene, he, he ran on a message of bringing, you know, bringing back manufacturing, ushering in a golden age for workers in this country, and people are waking up and realizing that just hasn’t happened, you know, You know, my, my opponent Max Miller has supported policies who that have driven up costs and people, you know, Ohio traditionally is not a partisan state. It, it can go red at times, it can go blue at times. You know, my district, Trump won by 11 points, but Sherrod Brown would have won this district in 2018, because, you know, they captured the same message. And it’s not a message that I’m running on, it’s literally my life. I am showing people that I’m an open book, and I’m literally running For the people I care about, the people who are having a hard time, people just like me and my family and my friends.
Tim Dickinson
Now, you’re there, I’m sorry, I don’t know the location, but you’re at a hospital talking about healthcare costs today. I just saw you on C-SPAN, and here you are with us, live from the scene. So tell us about what the message is that you have on healthcare.
Brian Poindexter
Well, I’m I’m here at Southwest Hospital in Middleburg Heights, right in our district. It’s a it’s a good hospital system, but you know, it’s it’s becoming more out of reach. You know, the like again, the one big beautiful bill has cut funding over a trillion dollars of funding for our healthcare system. And you know, you may not be on Medicaid or Medicare yourself, but you definitely benefit. From those programs, because they… they allowed funding for hospitals that, you know, provide services that you may need, whether even if you have private insurance. Now they cut that out of the equation. Those hospitals then can’t. provide that service, and now you have to drive farther away, or maybe not have that service at all. And, you know, one of the things I like to do right off the bat to help with healthcare is, you know, strengthen collective bargaining rights. I’m old enough to remember the 80s, where even non-union employers offered good quality healthcare in their in their workplaces because there was a stronger union presence. And I think, you know, I think working people need to come together and unite. We can fight for better wages, we can fight for quality healthcare, and we can fight for secure and dignified retirement. Things that everybody works for, and things that are not partisan issues.
Tim Dickinson
So we sort of jumped right into this, and I just want to give people a better texture about your district. It starts sort of excerpts of suburban Cleveland, and then goes south from there. Tell us what makes your district right, great.
Brian Poindexter
Well, yeah, so so it is it’s it’s a newly drawn district this year, gerrymandered to try to protect Max Miller. It includes the western and southern suburbs of Cleveland, which is Cuyahoga County portion, and we have all of Medina County. All of Ashland County, which is new to the district this year, welcome Ashland, Ohio, and, you have the north half of Wayne County. And again, they try to draw this district to protect Max Miller, but they accidentally drew a perfect district for me. Because I’m from the heart of the district, I’m a blue collar union iron worker and people in this district are hardworking people and it really shows that people are willing to come together through the gerrymander, through our differences, to rally behind somebody who they know will fight for them in Washington.
Tim Dickinson
Well, listen, I’m really cognizant of our time. We only have a few minutes with you. Are there other thoughts you want to make sure our listeners and our viewers come away with?
Brian Poindexter
Yeah, you know, In our campaign, we’re, we’re putting in a lot of hard work. You probably, if you’ve been following our campaign, you know that we’ve been, Going to events. You know, I got several events lined up today. Just coming from one to doing this. But if you if you don’t know about our campaign, I’d like you to go to our website, Poindexterforcongress.com. You can learn more. You can see our videos. We have some great creative ads, and we have to get creative because my opponent, Max Miller, just dumped $1 million of his own money into this race to try to buy his way out of his troubles. So we’re getting creative. We’re staying positive. We’re staying on message, and we’re gonna fight hard for the working families of Ohio seven and and across this country.
Tim Dickinson
Well, listen, I know that you have a lot of people rooting for you across the country for reasons both political and a matter of sort of moral character of the country. So, good luck to you, and we’ll hope to see you back here on the Contrarian.
Brian Poindexter
Tim, thanks for having me on and yeah, I look forward to our next opportunity and I’m going to keep fighting.
Tim Dickinson
Thanks so much.
Brian Poindexter
Thanks, Tim.
