Did the domestic abuse claims against Brown help him more than it hurt him?

[Karpatsky]

Serious thread, believe it or not. I spoke to some of my grandfather's friends recently and we happened to get into politics, and I was surprised to learn that quite a few of them were examples of the secretive DeWine/Brown voter. Most of their explanation why was the usual 'not like the other Democrats' stuff or trade things, but one of them justified it by saying that the attacks on him were unfair, and compared it to people attacking Trump as sexist.

So, serious question: does anyone think that the presence of unfounded assault claims on Brown helped him appeal more to culturally conservative people who are predisposed to be suspicious of allegations of such things more than they hurt him among people who believed the claims? I don't think there's any way to actually measure it, but I think after having this conversation that it's conceivable.