‘Joe the Plumber’ wins GOP primary in Ohio

Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, the Ohio man who became known as ‘Joe the Plumber’ after he asked then-candidate Barack Obama about small business taxes during the 2008 presidential race, won the GOP nomination in Ohio's new 9th Congressional District last night, the Wall Street Journal reported.

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Wurzelbacher, 38, will face off against Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur for a seat in Congress in November.

Wurzelbacher, who said he was a plumber, grabbed 15 minutes in the spotlight from his encounter with Obama at a campaign stop, but he later lost his job, the Los Angeles Times reported. It emerged that Wurzelbacher was not a licensed plumber, but a plumber’s assistant who owed back taxes to the state of Ohio and would likely get a tax cut under Obama's plan.

"If I had known then what I know now, I might have kept my mouth shut," Wurzelbacher wrote on his campaign website, according to ABC News. "I was then promptly thrown into the political world of lies, distortion and half-truths."

Wurzelbacher only squeaked past his opponent, Steve Kraus, an auctioneer and real estate agent, beating Kraus 51 percent to 48 percent, the LA Times reported. He outspent Kraus $58,741 to $9,806 as of Feb. 15, according to the Wall Street Journal, and got a boost from appearances with Herman Cain, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum.

Wurzelbacher now faces a tough race against Kaptur. Ohio’s 9th district, which runs from Cleveland to Toledo, leans Democratic, and Kaptur, who beat two-time presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich to grab the Democratic nomination last night, has 15 years in Congress under her belt, according to ABC News.

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