Wife-vs.-husband race aids charity

Democrat Jennifer Johnson wasn’t worried about losing to her Republican challenger Tuesday in a local election in Waterville, Maine. With little dwelling on how the votes came down — 127 for her, 76 for him — she and her rival David Johnson greeted her victory together at home.

They’re married, by the way, and neither of them intended to run for the “unglamorous volunteer job” of Ward 1 warden, who is responsible for managing a polling station on Election Day.


“The position is traditionally one that is left vacant a lot of the time. I was literally the only person from my ward that showed up [to the candidacy meeting], and they said I could be on the ballot or it could be unfilled,” she told POLITICO. “I didn’t want to have an empty line in my ward so I offered to do it.”

That’s when her husband decided to join the race too.

“We thought it would be funny for people to see that we have the same last name and the same address listed.”

( SEE RESULTS: 2013 elections)

The local race has received national attention for the novelty of having a wife and husband running against each other; but what is perhaps most remarkable is the way they’ve leveraged the attention they’ve received for the good of hungry kids in their community.

Johnson said that Waterville, a small town of nearly 16,000, has a high childhood poverty rate. Although the schools run a free and reduced-price lunch program, reaching as much as 70 percent of students, that need isn’t met in the summer months or on weekends.

“The teachers told me the thing they needed most was to make sure the kids are getting fed, or they can’t pay attention. If we can just get them not hungry we can just do a better job at teaching all of them,” Johnson, who volunteers at the George J. Mitchell School in Waterville, explained.

( PHOTOS: Election Day 2013)

The Johnsons decided to capitalize on the attention they were received from local and national media outlets to kick-off a food pantry they wanted to begin to address hunger in Waterville. Their efforts have yielded enough donation checks to the school to fund the food pantry for the next three years — largely from members of the community, but also from politicians, businesses, and individuals from places as far as New York and California — a huge victory for underprivileged kids in the community.

“We’re using this voice and attention we’ve been given to say, ‘Hey, get involved! Get involved in your communities, get involved in your schools,’” she said. “These kids are not shy about talking about what’s going on in their lives. There are a lot of local issues like that. If people just know then they’re willing to help.”

As for the secret to working across party lines, the Johnsons say it’s all about looking for shared objectives.

“Both of us have the same goal. Kids should be fed. When kids aren’t hungry they’re able to learn. We don’t have to agree on the whys or on the hows, but if we can just agree on what needs to be done then we can move forward.”

It helps that neither of them was too concerned with winning. When the Johnsons received the call Tuesday night telling them Jennifer had won, David looked over and told her he was happy he voted for the winner.