Brian Poindexter is the Democratic nominee for Ohio's 7th Congressional District, having won a crowded primary in May 2026 to take on Republican Rep. Max Miller. A union ironworker and Brook Park city councilman, Poindexter is running because he believes working people deserve real representation in Washington -- not empty promises.

One of six children raised in Cleveland by a union machinist father and a stay-at-home mother, Poindexter started working in a machine shop at 15 while lettering in football, wrestling, and baseball. After high school, he worked in kitchens and factories and drove tow motors before joining the moving industry and earning his Class A CDL, hauling freight across the continental United States. He and his family live in Brook Park, where he's raising two daughters -- one a Cleveland State accounting graduate, the other pursuing a nursing degree.

Since 2007, Poindexter has been a proud union Ironworker, working his way through the apprenticeship program while earning an associate degree in Applied Industrial Technology from Cuyahoga Community College. He spent two years as a union organizer before returning to the field to work on major regional projects, including the Lumen at Playhouse Square and NASA Glenn Research Center, and today serves as an apprenticeship instructor at Ironworkers Local 17. In 2017, he brought that same pro-worker mindset to public service, winning election as an at-large member of Brook Park City Council. He enters the general election backed by Senator Bernie Sanders, Congressman Ro Khanna, the Ohio AFL-CIO, and the United Auto Workers, with the DCCC naming Ohio's 7th District among the seats it considers in play this fall.