Midterm voters forced to choose between alleged adulterers, abusers, criminals and other ethically challenged pols

WASHINGTON — America’s cream of the crop.

On Election Day, many voters across the country will be forced to decide whether to elect ethically and criminally challenged candidates as they juggle their political and moral priorities.

From adultery to abuse accusations to criminal indictments, a number of candidates on both sides of the aisle managed to survive their primaries or had scandals emerge afterward, creating a dilemma for voters.

Here are some of the most scandalous pols on the ballot Nov. 3:

Max Miller

Ohio Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) is facing accusations that he abused his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, the daughter of Sen. Bernie Moreno, shoving her during a Feb. 1 custody exchange this year, and dumping hot water on her in 2024.

There are also fears that he may have been responsible for his 2-year-old daughter’s broken collarbone. Miller has vehemently denied the accusations, which came to light in his nasty custody fight with Emily.

Details about the accusations spilled out just before the primary he breezed through in May, but became much more prevalent later on.

Miller previously faced abuse accusations from former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham and had been arrested for driving under the influence when he was in college. His district, which voted for President Trump by 11 points in 2024, is now seen as a toss-up.

Ken Paxton

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) has long been haunted by a string of scandals, including cheating on his wife, a securities fraud indictment in 2015, accusations of giving preferential treatment to a donor, allegations of misappropriating public resources, and more.

Paxton was impeached by the GOP-led Texas state House in 2023 and narrowly escaped conviction by the state Senate.

Now he faces a shockingly competitive Senate race against Texas state Rep. James Talarico (D) in what is normally a Republican stronghold state.

Ilhan Omar

“Squad” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) had her DC home raided by the feds on Columbus Day and is believed to be facing a federal probe into whether or not she fibbed about her age on paperwork to become a US citizen.

Ilhan Omar’s relative timeline

Significant dates into Rep. Ilhan Omar’s past relationships, which point to a potential sham marriage with her brother.

1981 or 1982 — Ilhan Omar is born in Mogadishu, Somalia. Her birth year is in dispute — there are allegations she made herself a year younger to later qualify for citizenship as a minor.
1995 — After four years in a refugee camp in Kenya because of the Somalian civil war, Omar and her family emigrate to the US.
2002 — Omar marries Ahmed Hirsi (right) in an Islamic ceremony. They applied for a marriage license, but, she said, “we never finalized the application and thus were never legally married.” They have two children.
2009 — Omar marries Ahmed Nur Said Elmi. Evidence points to Elmi being her brother, and that she married him so he could legally live in the US after the family wanted him out of the UK.
2012 — Omar still lived with Hirsi during this time, witnesses told the Post, and they had a third child this year. Elmi also reportedly leaves Minnesota this year.
2016 — The FBI and Department of Homeland Security investigate claims Omar married her brother, as she runs for Minnesota’s legislature.
2017 — Omar’s divorce from Elmi is finalized.
2018 — Omar officially marries Hirsi. She runs for Congress for the first time and wins.
2019 — Omar leaves Hirsi for Tim Mynett (left), a political consultant who is paid by her campaign. They marry the next year.
2021 — A Biden-appointed US Attorney in Minnesota officially shuts down the investigation into Omar’s alleged immigration fraud.

In 2000, her father obtained his citizenship, and she piggybacked off that under the pretense that she was 17 years old. Trump administration officials are apparently investigating whether she was actually 18 at the time, meaning she wouldn’t have been eligible for citizenship.

Feds are also looking into whether she married her brother. Omar has denied both accusations and claimed that she is the victim of government weaponization due to her politics.

LaMonica McIver

Last year, Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) was charged with trying to block authorities from arresting Newark Mayor Ras Baraka during an oversight trip to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in that city.

She was charged with assaulting, impeding, and interfering with law enforcement. McIver claimed to have turned down a plea deal with the feds and has since pleaded not guilty.

Her attempts to dismiss the case were rejected, including by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Similar to Omar, McIver has contended that she is the victim of government weaponization.

Henry Cuellar

Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), who represents a competitive district on the outskirts of San Antonio, was indicted on bribery, money laundering, and conspiracy accusations for allegedly taking $600,000 from the Azerbaijani government and a bank.

Prosecutors alleged the money was funneled to Cuellar through a complex network of shell companies in exchange for influencing his position on a key subcommittee regarding Azerbaijan.

In a stunning move, Trump pardoned him in December of last year, though the president later expressed regret that Cuellar didn’t become a Republican in return. Cuellar has denied wrongdoing.

Bobby Pulido

Latin Grammy winner Bobby Pulido has been haunted by revelations of his raunchy social media history in which he has made sexually suggestive posts about women.

“I want a photo of your tit signed by @grupo_pesado,” Pulido wrote in Spanish at one point on X in 2014.

Pulido has defended the many past sordid posts as jokes that didn’t survive Google Translate. He also faced controversy over his ties to his longtime former bandmate Frankie Caballero, who was convicted of sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl in 2014.

Jimmy Gomez

Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) is facing a House Ethics Committee probe into “inappropriate sexual contact with a House staffer.”

The Post previously reported on him kissing a much younger aide three years ago. House rules restrict lawmakers from making “unwelcome sexual advances or conduct” toward employees.

Mike Collins

Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) has faced controversy over accusations of improperly paying a former intern, who had a romantic relationship with the congressman’s then-chief of staff, $10,000 to work a no-show job between 2023 and 2024.

That matter is being probed by the House Ethics Committee.

Collins, who is vying for Georgia’s Senate seat, also took heat over his son-in-law’s posting of Nazi imagery on social media, his former digital director William Paul’s drunken antisemitic tirade toward Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), and two campaign staffers having links to an ex-Ku Klux Klan leader.

The Peach State Republican insists he doesn’t harbor racist views.

Mary Peltola

Former Rep. Mary Peltola was hit with a late-breaking scandal after a bombshell New York Times report revealed links between her team and an effort to recruit a man named Dan J. Sullivan, also known as “Decoy Dan,” into her Senate race.

Here’s the latest on the ‘Decoy Dan’ scandal in the ongoing Alaska Senate race:

For months, Republicans had been deeply suspicious about the presence of “Decoy Dan” in the race, given that his name is nearly identical to incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska). But until that bombshell report, they lacked solid proof that Democrats recruited him.

Now the Justice Department is intensifying its investigation over the alleged efforts to recruit the second Dan Sullivan to confuse Alaskan voters in the highly competitive Senate race. Alaska’s Republican governor also annouced a state investigation into whether Democrats should face criminal charges.

Peltola’s campaign issued a very carefully worded statement in response to the report, claiming “the Alaskans for Mary campaign has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign.”

LaKesha Womack

North Carolina congressional hopeful Democrat LaKesha Womack was served with a felony summons this month at a campaign event over failure to pay her car rental in 2019.

She is challenging Rep. Tim Moore (R-NC), who is generally favored to win reelection.

Congressional clean-up

Ironically, 2026 saw multiple incumbent lawmakers go down due to various scandals.

In April, disgraced former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) resigned amid rape accusations and former Rep. Tony Gonzales stepped down amid revelations of his sexual relations with staffers, one of whom lit herself on fire and died. Swalwell denied the rape accusations.

California gubernatorial candidate Eric Swalwell speaks at a podium during the California Democratic Convention. — Eric Swalwell had been the frontrunner for California governor before rape accusations emerged. REUTERS

Then Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) resigned amid accusations she swindled some $5 million in COVID-19 relief and used it for her campaign. She ran for another term in Congress anyway but crashed and burned in a primary.

Outgoing Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) was bested in a primary this year. Mills, an Army veteran, faced allegations of stolen valor, financial misconduct, and domestic abuse. The congressman denied all of it.

Rep. Chuck Williams (R-NC) faced accusations of inappropriate conduct with female staffers and dropped out of his reelection race.

Famously, Maine oyster farmer Graham Platner dropped his Senate bid after facing rape accusations that he has vehemently denied.