Connie Schultz is a writer and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist from Ohio . She is currently on a leave of absence to help her husband, Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), in his race for the U.S. Senate.
She provides a compelling answer to the question she and her husband are continuously asked:
My husband, U.S. Rep. Sherrod Brown, is running for the Senate, but it can feel like he's about to march into battle as I answer the same question, day in and day out, across the state of Ohio."Aren't you afraid?" people ask, usually before Sherrod gives a speech or I show up on his behalf.
"Aren't you afraid of what they can do to you?"
Countless reporters have described my 53-year-old husband as "boyish," athletic and quick-witted, and he's all that, but what convinced me to agree to the rough-and-tumble of a political marriage was the Sherrod I see when no one's watching. I come from the working class, where both my parents wore their bodies out and died in their 60s because they vowed their children would have easier lives. Those are the people Sherrod has been fighting for all of his adult life, and they never fall off his radar. I see that in every aspect of his life, from the big tips he leaves for servers and valet parkers to his refusal to accept the Congressional medical insurance because so many Americans have no healthcare at all.
I found it moving and hope you do the same.