Democrat launches ad featuring Moreno ripping GOP’s Miller over daughter’s blue bunny

Democrat Brian Poindexter’s campaign is launching an ad Wednesday featuring Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) criticizing his former son-in-law, Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio), over an incident involving Moreno’s granddaughter’s stuffed blue bunny .

The ad, first shared with The Hill , comes as Miller has faced intense scrutiny amid abuse allegations from his ex-wife, Emily Moreno. She has accused the House Republican of hurling hot water at her, pointing a gun at her head and breaking their daughter’s collarbone. Miller has denied the allegations and is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee.

The ad features remarks the senator made to reporters in August about his granddaughter crying at night because she did not have her stuffed blue bunny while staying with him. He claimed that Miller had refused to give the toy back.

“Look, I don’t care about the politics of this. My granddaughter, she has a little blue bunny that she sleeps with. Max would not hand over the little blue bunny. Literally held it hostage for 48 hours. This girl is crying at night because she can’t sleep without her little blue bunny. And his answer is, ‘I’m just not going to give it to you.’ So this is the level of total and complete depravity,” the senator said in remarks used in the ad. “Truly the seventh level of hell.”

Miller has previously denied that he kept the bunny from his daughter. The Hill has reached out to Miller for comment.

The ad also features images of headlines and excerpts from news reports about the dispute, including a Mother Jones headline that reads, “Rep. Max Miller has a history of withholding his daughter’s blue bunny,” and the opening of a Christian Science Monitor story that reads, “A missing blue bunny. Scalding hot water. A toddler watching it all.”

The ad is part of a broader Democratic effort to tie Miller to criticism from fellow Republicans as he faces a competitive reelection fight in a district President Trump carried by 11 percentage points in 2024.

The nonpartisan Cook Political Report has shifted the race from likely Republican to toss-up, while the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) has stepped up its support for Miller. The NRCC and Miller campaign combined for a three-week, more than $450,000 ad buy that began Sept. 7, according to Politico.

Ohio Democrats are planning to spend at least $500,000 on a series of mailers featuring Republican senators criticizing Miller, according to a source familiar with the plans.

Images of the mailers, first obtained by The Hill, show quotes from several Republican senators, including Sen. Tim Sheehy (Mont.), who called Miller a “degenerate sociopath,” and Sens. Jon Husted (Ohio) and Roger Marshall (Kan.), who have called on Miller to resign.

One of the mailers reads, “The facts are adding up against Max Miller, who has been credibly accused of violence against girls and women multiple times over the span of decades. Even other Republicans aren’t buying Miller’s denials over a wide range of charges.”

Poindexter told The Hill in a statement, “Voters deserve the facts, and the fact is that both of Ohio’s Republican senators have said Max Miller is unfit to serve. The people who know him best say he should not represent us in Congress.”

Abigail Angelos, a spokesperson for Miller, previously told The Hill, “The good people of the Ohio 7th district are standing behind Congressman Miller and the recent support from the NRCC confirms the party is standing behind him as well.”

“He looks forward to returning in November,” she added.