The “Girl Dad” Running to Oust Max Miller in Ohio’s Messiest Congressional Race: Sipping on an iced caramel latte with whipped cream and talking about “squadding up” with his daughters on Fortnite, Brian Poindexter doesn’t necessarily fit the stereotype of a “manly man,” which is how another magazine characterized the congressional candidate in mid-July.
For what it’s worth, it’s his political opponent, Republican Rep. Max Miller, who recently testified about taking testosterone and frequenting half-a-dozen different gyms. Whatever muscles Poindexter has, he confirms, are the result of 19 years spent placing rebar and erecting the steel skeletons of buildings, and before that, working as a cross-country mover for people with too much Ethan Allen furniture.
“I figured out what armoire is French for,” he told me at a coffee shop in late August. “Heavy as heck.”
With a hearty catalogue of dad jokes, Poindexter is running for a seat representing northeastern Ohio as an inversion of Miller, an heir to a real estate fortune whose campaign has been overshadowed by serious domestic disputes in his personal life. So despite being divorced himself, Poindexter is positioning himself as a family man who has paid his dues helping his blue-collar community of Brook Park as a city council member for the past nine years.
He begins our interview by telling me about his kids: His oldest daughter is 25. She works in accounting, and is—he’s excited to share—newly engaged. He has another daughter who is 19, a college sophomore studying nursing. (By the way, did I know the Trump administration tried to remove nursing from the professional degree list? “Kind of upsetting. Nurses are very much professionals,” he said.) Poindexter’s long-term partner (he got divorced in 2022) also has a high-schooler whom Poindexter calls his “bonus daughter.”
“Everyone knows me as a father of two daughters, but I want to make sure I include her because she’s a good kid and I’m proud of her too,” said Poindexter.
I haven’t met them, but I’ve seen them star in an… https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/10/brian-poindexter-max-miller-ohio-7-congress-moreno/ #GirlDad #OhioPolitics