Amid President Barack Obama’s 2008 election campaign, an ordinary Joe became an overnight media darling during an impromptu encounter with the Illinois senator.

Samuel ‘Joe the Plumber’ Wurzelbacher was on hand when Obama’s campaign rolled through his working-class neighborhood in Toledo, Ohio. Wurzelbacher had recently bought a new business and wanted to know how Obama’s tax increase for filers above the $250,000 threshold would affect his business.