During the Persian Gulf War, he was reportedly the only member of Congress who had a grandson (Drew Miller, of Lancaster, Ohio) fighting in that conflict.

Miller was a 13-term Ohio Republican nicknamed "Five Percent Clarence" for his persistent efforts to cut spending bills by that amount.

The new district map was not agreed upon by the General Assembly until March 26, 1992, one week before the filing deadline for the primary originally scheduled for May 5.

(Governor George Voinovich signed the new map into law on March 27, and on April 1 the General Assembly moved the primary to June 2.)

Miller also had a strong distaste for McEwen, a Hillsboro Republican in his sixth term who had been elected to Congress at age thirty.

Despite being hurt in a fall in his bathtub after slipping on a bar of soap, an injury that led Republicans to expect his withdrawal, Miller stayed in the race.

Tom Deimer of Cleveland's Plain Dealer wrote that the two candidates were largely identical on the issues: "both are textbook Republican conservatives, opposed to abortion, gun control, high taxes, and costly government programs — unless located in their districts."

Miller noted he had no overdrafts, saying, "the score is 166 to nothing" referring to the number of checks McEwen bounced in the House banking scandal.

After the final result, Miller refused to endorse McEwen and carried an unsuccessful legal challenge to the redistricting to the United States Supreme Court, insisting district lines should be drawn on a politically neutral basis.

After the primary, McEwen introduced H. R. 5727 in the House to name the locks on the Ohio near Gallipolis after Miller, but the bill did not pass.

He was honored on his birthday, November 20, 2010, by the Hocking Valley Chapter of the Ohio Society of The Sons of the American Revolution, for his patriotism.