The first time I heard it, I laughed.
Oh, come on, I thought. He didn’t just say that.
We were at a restaurant in southern Ohio, where a hundred or
so Democrats and a handful of young campaign workers had
gathered to hear my husband, Sherrod Brown, announce for the
seventh time in two days why he was running for the United
States Senate.
The party chairman of the county stood up at the lectern and
in a loud, booming voice, introduced “Congressman Sherrod
Brown–and his lovely wife.”
By Week 40 of the campaign, I had been introduced that way
nearly a hundred times. I stopped counting once we hit the
50 marker. I knew I was not the point at these gatherings,
and I was so proud of the man who was.
Also, I realized I was getting cranky about something I
could not change. If I couldn’t rely on a sense of humor, I
was in for one long year on the campaign trail.
Writing with her trademark warmth, wit, and common sense,
Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Connie Schultz reveals the
rigors, adrenaline joys, and absolute madness of a new
marriage at midlife and campaigning with her husband, now
the junior senator from Ohio. She describes the chain of
events leading up to Sherrod’s decision to campaign for
Senate (he would not run without his wife’s unequivocal
support) in a state where no Democrat had won statewide
office for twelve years. She writes about the moment her
friends in the press became not so friendly; the constant
campaign demands on her marriage and family life; a personal
tragedy that came out of the blue. She gives us a candid
behind-the-scenes look at the often ludicrous trials and
tribulations of being an opinionated columnist, a political
wife, and a newly married woman in her forties, and the
rigors of political life: audacious bloggers, ruthless
adversaries, campaign fatigue, political divas, the
no-small-planes agreement, and staffers young enough to be
her children suddenly directing her and her husband’s every
move.
Filled with eye-opening revelations about the election
process, . . . and His Lovely Wife illuminates through one
woman’s story a marriage, our political system, our working
lives, and our nation. Connie Schultz is outspoken,
passionate, and very public about her opinions–in other
words, every political consultant’s nightmare, and every
reader’s dream.
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