[ad_1]
Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, whose query to Barack Obama on the 2008 presidential marketing campaign pushed him into the nationwide highlight, died Sunday following a battle with pancreatic most cancers, his spouse confirmed to NBC Information. He was 49.
Wurzelbacher grew to become higher often known as “Joe the Plumber” after posing a query to then-candidate Obama concerning his tax insurance policies and the potential detrimental affect on small companies. He shortly grew to become synonymous with the quintessential “everyman,” which the Republican get together latched onto of their presidential marketing campaign on the time.
Final yr, Wurzelbacher was identified with Stage 3 pancreatic most cancers following a couple of months of abdomen points, in response to an internet fundraising marketing campaign. His spouse, Katie, stated in a press release Monday that he “fought lengthy and arduous, however is now free from ache.”
“Once I met Joe he was already identified by everybody else as ‘Joe the Plumber’ however he wrote one thing to me that stood out and confirmed me who he actually was: ‘simply Joe,'” she stated in her assertion. “He was a median, honorable man making an attempt to do nice issues for the nation he liked so deeply after being thrust into the general public eye for asking a query.”
The couple, who married in 2011, have three youngsters collectively and Wurzelbacher additionally had an grownup son from a earlier marriage, in response to the fundraising marketing campaign. Within the days main as much as his dying, Wurzelbacher was in an excessive amount of ache to depart mattress.
“My coronary heart goes out to everybody whose lives are impacted by most cancers,” his spouse stated. “There are such a lot of ups and downs however we tried to search out pleasure in daily.”
Wurzelbacher within the years following his viral superstar stardom made a number of feedback indicating he din’t benefit from the notoriety — and scrutiny — that got here following his 2008 marketing campaign query to Obama. In October of that yr, he advised advised Fox Information that he “felt small” following on-line criticism of him.
He additionally advised a Pennsylvania public radio station in 2010 that he felt former Republican nominee John McCain “screwed up” his life by bringing him into the presidential marketing campaign.
“McCain was making an attempt to make use of me,” he stated. “I occurred to be the face of center Individuals. It was a ploy.”
However two years later, Wurzelbacher put himself within the highlight by working in Ohio’s ninth U.S. Home district in opposition to Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur. In one in all his marketing campaign advertisements, Wurzelbacher tried to hyperlink the Holocaust with gun laws. He stated that the thousands and thousands of Jews who died had been left unable to defend themselves due to “gun management” enacted by Germany in 1939.
“If individuals need to be offended by this video, they’re in all probability serving a political agenda,” Wurzelbacher advised Politico in response to backlash over the advert. “Sadly there are loads of whiners on the market.”
Wurzelbacher in the end misplaced in opposition to Kaptur within the 2012 normal election. In line with the fundraising marketing campaign, he returned to plumbing following his foray into politics.
[ad_2]
Source link
