Ohio Republican congressional candidate accused of controlling affair with 2020 campaign staffer

A former Trump campaign worker alleges that Madison Sheahan, a Republican running for Ohio’s 9th Congressional District, engaged in a secret, controlling two-year sexual relationship with her beginning in October 2020 — a claim Sheahan’s campaign flatly denies.

The woman, who spoke to the Daily Mail on condition of anonymity, said the relationship began after Sheahan — then 23 and serving as state election operations director for the Trump campaign’s Ohio operation — invited her to share a bed following a campaign party. The woman was 19 at the time and had recently moved into Sheahan’s home after losing student housing during the COVID-19 pandemic, she told the outlet. She said a sexual relationship began within weeks.

Three sources told the Daily Mail that Sheahan briefly became the woman’s direct supervisor in November 2020 while the sexual relationship was ongoing.

The relationship continued through the end of the 2020 campaign and into the Georgia Senate runoffs in December 2020. The woman told the Daily Mail that Sheahan’s allegedly controlling behavior grew more apparent when the two were stationed separately — Sheahan with senior staff in Buckhead, the younger woman roughly an hour away in rural Georgia.

The most specific allegation in the report involves a November 29, 2020 incident in Atlanta. The woman says she sent Sheahan a photo of her outfit before going out with a group of friends and that Sheahan’s response shifted abruptly.

“She lost it on me,” the woman told the Daily Mail. “It went from her saying, ‘Have fun, have a great night,’ to, ‘What the f***, you’re not gonna f***ing go. Are you actually f***ing serious? I’m not gonna talk to you again.’”

The woman went out anyway. She says a subsequent phone call with Sheahan escalated further, with Sheahan telling her: “People who do that stuff, that’s what they do. They cheat on people.”

A separate source who was present that night told the Daily Mail they could hear Sheahan screaming through the hotel room walls on speaker phone. The woman said Sheahan’s jealousy was directed not at the women in her group, but at the men.

The woman also described a pattern involving control over her dress, her smoking, and her professional decisions. Public displays of affection were prohibited. When the woman began exploring a job out of state in late 2021, she says Sheahan opposed it. The relationship ended in 2022 over a phone call, according to the report, which the woman described as “very defeating.”

The ex-lover said she also believed the conflict reflected Sheahan’s discomfort with her own sexuality.

“I think a lot of the problems with our relationship was that she’s not comfortable in her own skin,” the woman told the Daily Mail. “It’s okay to be gay … but I don’t think that’s something she has accepted.”

When asked to describe the relationship in one word, the woman offered three: “Toxic.” “Volatile.” “Controlling.”

The Daily Mail reported that the account was corroborated in part by two independent sources.

A separate senior DHS official told the Daily Mail that Sheahan exhibited similar behavior at ICE, where she served as deputy director from March 2025 until her resignation in January 2026. According to that official, Sheahan targeted female staffers she regarded as disloyal and frequently invoked the authority of then-Secretary Kristi Noem.

“She’d always try to be the alpha in the room. There could never be a stronger woman. Madison was intimidated by strong women,” the official told the Daily Mail. “She’d always push to get women fired.”

The same official alleged Sheahan was known to threaten staff, telling them she would “rip their faces off.” DHS and ICE did not respond to the Daily Mail’s requests for comment.

Sheahan declined to comment when contacted by the Daily Mail. Her Ohio campaign manager, Bob Paduchik, denied the allegations.

“As the Ohio campaign manager, I can speak with authority that no such relationship existed,” Paduchik told the Daily Mail. “Madison was not and has never been in a relationship with a subordinate.”

Sheahan, 28, is one of five Republicans competing in the May 5 primary in Ohio’s 9th Congressional District, where she is seeking to challenge longtime Democratic incumbent Rep. Marcy Kaptur. She resigned as ICE deputy director in January 2026 to launch her campaign. The Daily Mail reported she has raised more than $450,000 since announcing her candidacy but trails in third place with 10 percent support among Republican primary voters, according to a JL Partners poll cited in the report.

The Ohio Capital Journal has separately reported that Sheahan has not received a White House endorsement, and that Lucas County Republicans — whose voters fall within the 9th District — have publicly voiced displeasure with her candidacy.