The candidates and ballot details for this 2026 U.S. House race, with the original election records attached.
The Stated Record analysis: Toss-up
Updated September 3, 2026
Who is running?
Printed ballot candidates
Brian PoindexterDemocratic
Max MillerRepublican
Valid write-ins are listed separately by the election authority.
Source: Cuyahoga County Board of Elections candidate list
Checked September 2, 2026
Voter guide
The candidates, side by side
Background comes from government or official office records, and from the campaign's own biography where the bullet says so. Goals are summarized from each campaign's own platform page and stay attributed to the campaign. The record lines are official votes, sponsorships, and filings with the government source attached. Money is shown as filed, by the type the FEC records for the contributing committee, and is not evidence of why any position was taken. Money rows are itemized receipts from political committees; transfers from joint fundraising committees and the conduit entries for earmarked individual contributions sit on their own rows and are not additive with the rest; other memo entries, reimbursements, and receipts from organizations that are not political committees are excluded; each candidate's note gives the filing window and the reconciliation to the FEC summary.
A Brook Park city councilman, elected at large; the city's own council page lists him among its seven members. City of Brook Park, Ohio
His campaign describes him as a union ironworker and a father, and says he has worked many of the blue-collar jobs in the district. Poindexter for Congress
What they say they want to do
An economy that works for the people who power it, where working families are not paying more while corporations post record profits. Poindexter for Congress
The freedom for every worker to organise without intimidation, which his campaign ties to safer workplaces and fair pay. Poindexter for Congress
An end to rewarding companies that ship jobs overseas, with corporations investing in American workers and communities instead. Poindexter for Congress
What the official record shows
Moved that no work could begin on a proposed Circle K gas station at 20850 Sheldon Road until the Route 237 safety recommendations were completed at Circle K's expense, as a condition of its permit. The council adopted the condition 4 to 3. City of Brook Park, Ohio
Moved to limit the same station's hours to 5 a.m. to 11 p.m., which the council adopted 4 to 3. A further condition he moved, a new traffic study with passing grades before any work began, failed 2 to 5. City of Brook Park, Ohio
Voted against removing the station's hours limit, and against a motion to widen the road during demolition and construction. Both carried 4 to 3. City of Brook Park, Ohio
Voted against Resolution 16-2024, which granted Circle K the conditional use permit for the station. It passed 4 to 3 on third reading. City of Brook Park, Ohio
Campaign money from other committees, by type
Labor Organization PACs 14 committees
$91,933
Leadership PACs 7 committees
$21,500
Committees the FEC records no type for 20 committees
Money from political committees in the 2025-26 cycle, through June 30, 2026 (FEC lines 11B, 11C and 12). The rows sum to 162,073.00 dollars. Donations from individuals, including through ActBlue or WinRed, are not counted here.
The sitting member for Ohio's seventh district, in his second term; Congress.gov records two terms for him, the first beginning in 2023. Congress.gov
His campaign says he served four years in the White House as Director of Presidential Advance and as a senior adviser to President Trump, and six years in the United States Marine Corps Reserve. Max Miller for Congress
Congress.gov records forty-six sponsored items for him across the two Congresses he has served, none of which has become law. Congress.gov, Congress.gov
What they say they want to do
Lower taxation for working families in the district, having voted for the 2025 reconciliation act. Max Miller for Congress
Expanded workforce development and career and technical education, on the view that the American dream does not require a four-year degree. Max Miller for Congress
Money from political committees in the 2025-26 cycle, through June 30, 2026 (FEC lines 11B, 11C and 12). The rows sum to 1,216,253.40 dollars. Donations from individuals, including through ActBlue or WinRed, are not counted here.
Race outlook
How election analysts rate this race
Categories are ordered judgments, not win probabilities.
The Stated Record analysisToss-up
Based on 3 verified rating sources.
DemocraticToss-upRepublican
Cook Political ReportToss Up
Cook Political Report assessed this Aug 25, 2026; checked Sep 3, 2026.
Inside ElectionsToss-up
Inside Elections assessed this Aug 10, 2026; checked Sep 3, 2026.
Sabato's Crystal BallToss-up
Sabato's Crystal Ball assessed this Aug 26, 2026; checked Sep 3, 2026.
Our synthesis uses the median-style ordinal rule described in Methodology. It is our analysis, not another independent rating.
What to know
The race in context
Signal Cleveland identified Max Miller and Brian Poindexter as the major-party opponents in the November contest.
X @MaxMillerOHPublic profile linked by the campaign site. His congressional office keeps a separate account, @repmaxmiller, which is not this one.
Instagram @MaxMillerOhioPublic profile linked by the campaign site. Post availability and account metadata can change.
Profile links show what is public now, not a complete archive. Each link was confirmed through the campaign site unless a note says otherwise. Individual social posts enter the evidence record only with a post URL, date, context, and review note.
Issue comparison
What each campaign says
These are attributed platform positions, not promises The Stated Record has verified or endorsed.
His campaign says working families are paying more while corporations post record profits, that tax cuts flow to the wealthy and subsidies to big corporations, and that an economy should work for the people who power it.
His campaign says excess taxation burdens working families in the district, names his votes for making tax cuts permanent and for tax relief on tips and overtime, and says government should get out of the way of job creators.
His campaign says every worker deserves the freedom to organise without intimidation and that strong unions mean safer workplaces, fair pay and stronger communities. He describes himself as a card-carrying union member and an ironworker.
His campaign says the American dream does not require a four-year degree, and that he has made it his mission to expand workforce development and career and technical education. It states no position on union organising.
His campaign says companies should not be rewarded for shipping jobs overseas, and that corporations wanting the benefits of this country should invest in American workers and communities.
His campaign says investing in infrastructure strengthens supply chains and reduces dependence on foreign competitors, and his biography says he saw Ohio's middle class damaged by corporations that chose cheap foreign labour.
His campaign says health care should not disappear because a job does, and that the system is confusing by design while working families pay the price.
No health-care position was found on the campaign priorities page reviewed for this comparison, which sets out seven subjects and does not include health care among them.
No position on the southern border or on law enforcement was found on the campaign site reviewed for this comparison, which sets out four subjects: the economy and cost of living, workers' rights and unions, health care, and American manufacturing.
His campaign says lawlessness at the southern border has brought illicit drugs and human trafficking, that he will continue to fight to maintain a secure border, and that he will fight for increased funding and support for law enforcement.
His campaign says the previous administration raised energy costs with policies that cut American production, and that he will keep supporting policies for American energy independence and lower gas and electricity costs.
The number of cards varies with what each candidate's official record supports, and every card carries the same required parts: what they say, what the official record shows, one label from the fixed list, and its limit. Each card is labeled narrowly, by rule. A single vote, sponsorship, or filing can match one claim without proving a candidate's whole record, and a card never says why someone did something.
His campaign says lawlessness at the southern border has brought illicit drugs and human trafficking, and that he will continue to fight to maintain a secure border.
“Max will continue to fight to maintain the secure border.”
Four border measures reached a recorded vote on passage in the 119th Congress and he voted Yea on all four: the Preventing Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act on January 16, 2025 (Roll Call 17), the Subterranean Border Defense Act and the Emerging Innovative Border Technologies Act on March 10 (Roll Calls 63 and 65), and the Special Interest Alien Reporting Act on June 26 (Roll Call 184). All four passed the House and were referred to committee in the Senate. None has become law.
Limit: Four recorded votes in one Congress, all in the direction the claim states. None of the four became law, so nothing here shows the border changing; and a vote on a named bill is not a score of his whole record on the subject. On the first of them he also voted Nay on a motion to recommit, which is a vote for the bill rather than against it.
He voted Yea on passage of four law-enforcement measures in the 119th Congress: the Agent Raul Gonzalez Officer Safety Act on February 13, 2025 (Roll Call 42), the Federal Law Enforcement Officer Service Weapon Purchase Act and the Improving Law Enforcement Officer Safety and Wellness Through Data Act on May 15 (Roll Calls 130 and 131), and the Common-Sense Law Enforcement and Accountability Now in DC Act on November 19 (Roll Call 299). All four passed the House and went to the Senate; none has become law.
Limit: The claim has two halves and these votes answer one of them. They go to officer safety, wellness data, and the purchase of a service weapon, which is support; none of the four is an appropriation, so the funding half is not settled by them. None became law.
His campaign says he will keep supporting policies for American energy independence and for reducing the cost of gas and electricity.
“Max will continue to support the policies of the Trump administration to develop American energy independence and reduce the costs of gas and electricity.”
He voted Yea on passage of the Protecting American Energy Production Act on February 7, 2025 (Roll Call 35), the GRID Power Act on September 18 (Roll Call 279), and the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act on September 4 (Roll Call 239). The first two passed the House and were referred in the Senate; the appropriations bill was read a second time and placed on the Senate calendar. On the first and third he also voted Nay on motions to recommit, which are votes for those bills rather than against them.
Limit: Three recorded votes in the direction the claim states. What a bill would do to the price of gas or electricity is not something a roll call shows, and none of these has become law.
He cast those votes. The House Clerk records him voting Yea on passage of H.R. 1 of the 119th Congress on May 22, 2025 (Roll Call 145) and Aye on concurring in the Senate amendment on July 3, 2025 (Roll Call 190); it became Public Law 119-21 the next day. What the law does differs by part. It makes permanent the individual tax rates of 10, 12, 22, 24, 32, 35 and 37 per cent and other provisions first enacted in 2017. For tips and overtime it creates deductions rather than exemptions: the overtime deduction is capped at 12,500 dollars, 25,000 for joint filers, runs only through 2028, and phases out above 150,000 dollars of modified adjusted gross income.
Limit: He voted as he says on the bill he means, and the permanence half of the claim is exact. "No tax on" is the campaign's shorthand for capped deductions that expire in 2028, which is not the same as removing the tax. On the same day as the passage vote he voted Nay on Roll Call 144, a motion to recommit; that is a procedural vote against sending the bill back, not a vote against the bill.
Jobs: workforce development and career and technical education
Matches stated direction
What they say
His campaign says he has made it his mission to expand workforce development and career and technical education opportunities.
“Max has made it his mission to expand workforce development and career and technical education opportunities that create prosperity for individuals & build a stronger future for America.”
He has sponsored on the subject in both Congresses he has served: the American Workforce Act in the 118th and again in the 119th, the Career and Technical Education Advocacy Grant Program Act in the 118th, and the Foster Youth Workforce Opportunity Act in the 119th, which reached the Union Calendar. None became law. Congress.gov records forty-six sponsored items for him across the two Congresses and none of them has become law.
Limit: Repeated sponsorship across two Congresses is evidence of the mission the claim describes. Sponsoring is not enacting, and none of these bills became law; a member's influence on a subject can also run through committee work and amendments, which a sponsorship record does not show.
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Campaign finance
FEC snapshot through Jun 30, 2026
Principal campaign committees only. Receipts and disbursements are the election-cycle-to-date figures, Column B on each filing's summary page; cash on hand and debt are period-end figures. All are carried by reports covering the same period. Money is not a score of candidate quality or voter support.
The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections candidate list for the November 3 general election showed both printed candidates when The Stated Record checked it on September 2, 2026. Valid write-ins are listed separately by the election authority.
Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives. Recorded vote of January 16, 2025 on passage, read through the Congress.gov house-vote member list.
Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives. Recorded vote of February 13, 2025 on passage, read through the Congress.gov house-vote member list.
Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives. Recorded vote of November 19, 2025 on passage, read through the Congress.gov house-vote member list.
Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives. Recorded vote of February 7, 2025 on passage, read through the Congress.gov house-vote member list.
Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives. Recorded vote of September 18, 2025 on passage, read through the Congress.gov house-vote member list.
Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives. Recorded vote of September 4, 2025 on passage, read through the Congress.gov house-vote member list.
City of Brook Park, Ohio. The city's published minutes, 744 files back to 2015. The site answers a normal browser request and returns HTTP 406 to one without a user agent, so it was read the way a reader would reach it. Of the twenty-six regular council meetings published for 2025 and 2026, six carry a text layer and twenty are scanned images; the readable six are themselves imperfect optical character recognition, printing NAVS for NAYS in two of them. The 2025 scans have since been transcribed; the votes in his guide cite each meeting's own file.
City of Brook Park, Ohio. Approved minutes, a scanned document with no text layer. Transcribed, and every vote cited from it was read against the page image (printed pages 14 to 16). The city notes its minutes are a synopsis rather than a verbatim record, so only motions and roll calls are cited, never quoted remarks.
City of Brook Park, Ohio. Approved minutes, a scanned document with no text layer. Transcribed, and every vote cited from it was read against the page image (printed page 9). The city notes its minutes are a synopsis rather than a verbatim record, so only motions and roll calls are cited, never quoted remarks.
City of Brook Park, Ohio. Approved minutes, a scanned document with no text layer. Transcribed, and every vote cited from it was read against the page image (printed page 9). The city notes its minutes are a synopsis rather than a verbatim record, so only motions and roll calls are cited, never quoted remarks.
Federal Election Commission. Read from OpenFEC on 2026-09-21: all 378 itemized non-individual rows the FEC reports for the cycle, of which 335 carry a contributing-committee identifier and are grouped in the table. No individual contributor row was read.
Federal Election Commission. Read from OpenFEC on 2026-09-21: all 571 itemized non-individual rows the FEC reports for the cycle, of which 542 carry a contributing-committee identifier and are grouped in the table. No individual contributor row was read.
Cuyahoga County Board of Elections. Official printed-candidate list for the November 3, 2026 general election; county metadata dated August 31, 2026 and reviewed September 2, 2026. Ohio's Secretary of State site refuses automated readers, so a county board's list is used for the field.
Congress.gov. Used for his office, district, party and the two terms recorded, the first beginning in 2023, which is what makes the campaign's "second term" checkable.
City of Brook Park, Ohio. The city's own council page, which lists "Brian K. Poindexter, Council at Large". Used for his current office and the fact that the seat is at large rather than a ward.
Max Miller for Congress. Campaign-controlled source. Positions are attributed, not independently verified facts. Three other domains carrying his name are not the campaign: maxmillerforcongress.com has no DNS record, maxmillerforohio.com is a registrar parking page, and millerforohio.com is an unconfigured site template.
Max Miller for Congress. Campaign-controlled source, used for biography and for the manufacturing passage. The site's news section still carries placeholder article slugs, which is template residue and not treated as campaign content.
Poindexter for Congress. Campaign-controlled source and the whole of its issue material: four sections on one page, with no separate issues page. It also links six public profiles: X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Bluesky. Positions are attributed, not independently verified facts.
Federal Election Commission. Principal campaign committee only, covering April 16 to June 30, 2026, received July 15, 2026 and read from OpenFEC on September 21, 2026 as the most recent report not superseded by an amendment.
Federal Election Commission. Principal campaign committee only, covering the same April 16 to June 30, 2026 period as his opponent's. It was received on September 11, 2026, nearly two months after his opponent's report for that period, which is what the filing shows and is not evaluated here.
Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives. Recorded vote of May 22, 2025, read through the Congress.gov house-vote member list. The question was on passage.
Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives. Recorded vote of July 3, 2025, read through the Congress.gov house-vote member list. The question was on the motion to concur in the Senate amendment.
Congress.gov. The act and its published summary, used for what the law does: the permanent individual rates, and the capped deductions for qualified tips and qualified overtime that run through 2028.
What this page includes, and what is not yet included.
As of Sep 23, 2026. Each area lists only what has passed its source check. How coverage works.
BallotIncluded
2 printed candidates, checked September 2, 2026 against the official election record.
Race outlookIncluded
3 of 3 specialist ratings are current as of Sep 23, 2026.
Reported contextIncluded
1 dated development with original reporting attached.
Words and recordIncluded
5 statement-to-action comparisons across 2 candidate records, each with a stated limitation.
Campaign financeIncluded
FEC filing snapshots for 2 principal campaign committees, with a common coverage cutoff.
PollingNot yet
No published poll has been reviewed for this race yet.
No correction has been recorded for this race. Report an error.
Printed brief
Sources for this brief
Snapshot as of Sep 23, 2026. The live page may have changed since this copy was printed: https://statedrecord.com/races/ohio-us-house-07-2026
Cuyahoga County Board of Elections candidate listhttps://www.boe.cuyahogacounty.gov/docs/default-source/boe/candidates-page/candidate-list.pdf?sfvrsn=4b1792c0_733
Cook Political Report House ratingshttps://www.cookpolitical.com/ratings/house-race-ratings
Signal Clevelandhttps://signalcleveland.org/why-democrats-think-they-can-compete-in-this-sleeper-ohio-congressional-race-max-miller-brian-poindexter-november-election-2026/