Josiah for President

by Martha Bolton

  “But you’re running on the fact that you’re Amish.”

  “I am Amish. The church may indeed shun me, especially if I win, but should that happen, I will serve, but I will also do everything in my power to ask their forgiveness once my term is up. But you, sir, have no power to take my faith from me.”

  After the call ended, news of how Josiah had defended his wife and his faith, as well as Harley’s gross insensitivity toward Elizabeth, quickly spread throughout the news outlets. But this time it spread because Harley himself leaked the story — the true story — to the media. For once, Harley did the right thing.

  He also did it hoping that publicly taking the high road would win him more votes.

  Harley was always thinking.

  The decision was now up to the voters.

  Election Day was just hours away!

  CHAPTER 18

  BY LATE AFTERNOON OF ELECTION DAY, A CROWD OF SUPPORTERS had gathered at the Elect Josiah headquarters in D.C. to await the closing of the precincts and the tallying of the ballots. Included in the crowd was the friendly couple Mark had met while waiting for his car at the Willard Hotel way back before any of this had started — before Mark’s car trouble, before meeting Josiah, and before this most historic election night.

  “Thanks for letting us share in this moment, Congressman,” the man said as he greeted Mark with a sincere handshake.

  “Well, I told myself if I ever ran again, I was going to track you two down and put you to work in the campaign,” Mark said. “I try to keep my promises, even the ones I make to myself.”

  “Well, you kept this one, that’s for sure. And we’ve enjoyed every minute of it!” Agnes said. “We hope you win!”

  “If we do, it’ll be thanks to people like you. There’s no way Josiah and I could have done this alone.”

  The woman reached into her purse and pulled out her camera again.

  “Agnes,” the man said, shaking his head. Then he turned to Mark and apologized once more.

  “It’s fine. I don’t mind at all,” Mark said.

  “Well, I have to take it now,” Agnes explained to her husband. “Once he becomes vice president, we may never see him again.”

  Mark laughed. “I’m more than happy to take another picture with you both. But you’ll have to forget about that never-seeing-me-again stuff. I owe you!”

  “And you know how you can pay us back, don’t you?” the man said.

  “How’s that?”

  “Win this thing!”

  ELIZABETH HAD WANTED TO BE WITH HER HUSBAND ON ELECTION Day — it was the day that would determine their future — so Mark had arranged for Secret Service to pick her and the children up from Lancaster and then drive them to D.C. It was about a 250-mile drive, and when they arrived in the capital city by late afternoon, the children looked out the car window in awe of all the national monuments. This was their first trip to D.C., and they had a lot to take in. Elizabeth had already been to the capital city several times during the campaign, so it was beginning to feel a little more familiar to her. She was able to answer her children’s string of questions almost as an authority.

  “What’s that?”

  “The Lincoln Memorial.”

  “What’s that?”

  “The Jefferson Memorial.”

  “What’s that?”

  “The Capitol Building.”

  “What’s that?”

  “A man selling T-shirts.”

  “But that’s Daddy’s face on it.”

  “It would appear to be, yes.”

  It was only an artist’s drawing, and Elizabeth knew there was no way that Josiah could control all the marketing that was going on in his name. It was all part of the process.

  All she was really thinking about this day was how much she longed to see her sweet Josiah and finally put this campaign behind them.

  AT THE STOLTZFUS-STEDMAN HEADQUARTERS, THE ENERGY WAS electric, hopeful, and exceptionally tense as family, friends, and supporters watched the TV, switching between different news broadcasts. They wanted to see how the coverage was being handled on each of the major news shows. The polls would close soon, and no one wanted to miss a second of the results once they began coming in.

  Elizabeth and the children arrived at campaign headquarters by early evening. Josiah was thrilled and relieved to see her. He took her hand and smiled tenderly, then he greeted each of his children. They were in Washington, D.C., more than two hundred miles away from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, but having his family beside him made him feel like he was home.

  Mark’s family had arrived earlier that morning. None of them could believe that Election Day was finally here. The children wished their fathers luck and meant it.

  THAT NIGHT, WHEN THE PRECINCTS STARTED CLOSING AND THE results began rolling in, it was obvious that it was going to be a very tight race. The two front-runners, Josiah Stoltzfus and Harley Phillips, ran neck and neck for most of the evening.

  But then Harley started nudging ahead just a bit. Then a little more. And a little more. Perhaps his last-ditch evil ploy had worked after all. It wasn’t fair. Sometimes nice guys really do finish last though. No one in Josiah’s camp wanted to think about a defeat, but it was beginning to look like a clear possibility.

  The Ledbetter-Harper ticket wasn’t doing as well. Around ten o’clock, the candidates on that ticket conceded, giving eloquent and gracious speeches that were carried live on all the news broadcasts.

  It was now a contest between Harley and Josiah, and Harley remained in the lead.

  “Have you thought about what you’ll do if we lose tonight?” Mark asked Josiah when they finally got a quiet moment to talk.

  “Go on with my life,” Josiah said.

  “It wouldn’t bother you to have come this far, be this close, and lose?”

  “Never want something so much that you question God’s plan, Mark,” Josiah said, “even if the thing you want is a gut thing, and you want it for all the right reasons.”

  As expected, Josiah took Pennsylvania. It was the home of Lancaster County, and while the Amish typically didn’t vote in national elections, they were a loved people there. Mark had been counting on the state voting for one of their own, and Pennsylvania hadn’t let him down.

  The Stoltzfus-Stedman ticket also took Wisconsin, Tennessee, North Carolina, Iowa, and Indiana. Harley secured Ohio, New Hampshire, and Maryland. New York and Michigan were up for grabs, with the tallies for the remainder of the states continuing to come in throughout the night.

  “We just took Texas!” Carl shouted when the announcement came over the television around midnight. Texas had been waffling between the two candidates, with Harley taking the lead at one point, then Josiah, then Harley, then back to Josiah. But now the race had been called. With 85 percent of the votes now in, Texas fell handily into the Stoltzfus-Stedman camp, and the room erupted in cheers.

  But then Harley took New Jersey and Delaware.

  Florida came in for Governor Ledbetter, even though she had already conceded the race by then. And on it went.

  Idaho went to Harley, but Arizona, Michigan, and Illinois went to Josiah. Mark had been hoping that Josiah’s stance on illegal immigration and jobs would help carry those states, and apparently it had. For Michigan and Illinois and their soaring unemployment, Josiah had pushed the idea that most folks would prefer to have the opportunity to work at a decent-paying job rather than simply being given a handout. But he’d also pointed out that sometimes good folks need help. Somehow he’d found an acceptable balance between the two ideas.

  Josiah had managed to find the middle ground on Arizona and Texas’s border issue as well. His Amish ways gave him a welcoming heart for immigrants; after all, he had come from a long line of immigrants himself. Most Americans had, too, for that matter. But being Amish had also taught him the importance of having healthy boundaries when it came to stopping certain negative outside influences from coming into one’s own community, such as the trafficki
ng of people and drugs. Josiah had found common ground between the two factions, and it translated directly into votes.

  As the night wore on, Josiah took even more states, edged into the lead in the popular vote, and began to dominate the electoral college as well. He was clearly the front-runner now, and it was beginning to look like there would be no stopping him.

  And then came the mother lode.

  “We just took New York!” a Josiah campaign volunteer shrieked. The cheers that followed were deafening.

  New York! Mark couldn’t believe his ears. That had seemed like a virtual impossibility. New York — with its high fashion, Wall Street, and Broadway — had been polling in Harley’s pocket for months. It had even been Harley’s state for most of the evening. But now Josiah nudged ahead with a narrow majority. New Yorkers had given him their vote of confidence — not a resounding majority, but a majority nonetheless.

  On one level Mark could understand it. The Amish sense of community had appealed to the post-9/11 Big Apple. Most New Yorkers knew what it meant to come together in a time of crisis and help out their neighbors, and they liked that Josiah held to those same beliefs. They also resented Harley’s overconfidence that he had New York in his back pocket. New Yorkers didn’t like to be told how they were going to vote. And maybe that Lizzie Borden comment had also caused them to rethink their stance on Harley. On the news reports, many voters said they had made their decision to vote for Josiah while in the voting booth. Much like the timing of Harley’s leak, their change of heart happened at the last minute.

  One look at the electoral college tally, and Mark could see the election could very well shape up to be a Stoltzfus-Stedman landslide.

  But it wasn’t over yet. Many of the western states were yet to be counted, and California, as well as Oregon and Washington, with their abundance of electoral votes, was still up for grabs. Josiah was the front-runner in at least two of those states, but none of them was close to being called.

  The atmosphere at the Stoltzfus-Stedman headquarters was ecstatic. People hugged, noisemakers sounded, and confetti rained down. Mark hugged Cindy and each of his children. Tonight there were no walls. They were proud of their dad, and Cindy beamed as the results continued pouring in in their favor. Mark’s children posed happily for the news cameras, while Josiah’s four children spent most of their time around the refreshment table or playing board games with some of the other children. Elizabeth stayed by her husband’s side, while Cindy greeted friends, longtime supporters, and the campaign volunteers who were all on hand for the night’s festivities.

  When California’s absentee ballots had begun to be counted, the two remaining candidates were running nearly even. Ledbetter’s paltry showing validated her early concession. But when the regular ballots started coming in from the precincts, Josiah took hold of the lead and didn’t give it back.

  Could it be? New York, Texas, and California? Could it really be possible? Mark wondered.

  It certainly looked that way. The triple crown. This was simply unheard of for an unknown. And a write-in candidate to boot. But then, this was an election year like no other.

  Political analysts would say that California, like Michigan and Illinois, had been hard hit by unemployment, and a lot of people were underwater in their home payments due to the economic tsunami that had crashed on shore, burying California’s real-estate market. It’s no wonder, then, analysts would say, that the state would vote for whoever was going to get the economy moving again. Exit polls further explained the people’s thinking:

  “I wasn’t sure who I was going to vote for when I stepped into the voting booth,” said one unidentified lady from the Fresno area. “I liked Josiah and the things he had to say, but I also didn’t want to waste my vote by writing in the name of someone who couldn’t win. But then I told myself to just make a statement, to vote my conscience, you know? Josiah was who I wanted in the White House, so that’s who I voted for!”

  The woman had no idea that a good majority of the state would end up doing the exact same thing. In fact, people all over the country were doing it.

  By the time all the votes were counted across the nation, Josiah would be declared the winner by a sizable margin. At their Washington campaign headquarters, Mark was in a state of shock. Josiah looked stunned. They had done it. They had really done it!

  Josiah Stoltzfus was the president elect of the United States!

  “God help us,” Josiah said.

  Mark grinned. “I think he just did.”

  IMMEDIATELY, MARK’S CELL PHONE BEGAN RINGING WITH CONGRATULATORY messages, including ones from President Holt and Governor Ledbetter. From his campaign headquarters, Harley Phillips placed a call to Mark too.

  “Well done,” Harley said when Mark answered the call. “I don’t know how you did it, but I can’t argue with a miracle. You two sure pulled it off. I have to congratulate you for it.” Harley sounded sincere. Maybe he was simply relieved that the grueling campaign was finally over.

  “Thanks, Harley,” Mark said. “Let me hand you over to Josiah.”

  Mark turned up the volume of the phone and then held it out for Josiah, who took it cautiously. They hunched over the phone together.

  “Harley?” Josiah said.

  “Looking forward to working with you, Mr. President,” Harley said.

  “Get ready to roll up your sleeves. We’ve got a lot to do,” Josiah answered, forgiving Harley without being asked to. Mark wandered away when it became clear that Harley wasn’t going to antagonize Josiah.

  Harley’s concession speech came a short while later. Carried live on all the major networks, it was four minutes of authentic praise for his worthy opponents. Unfortunately, Mark noticed it was another six minutes of Harley promising to return in four years.

  Harley did, however, end his speech with a challenge for his fellow congressmen.

  “The people have spoken,” he said to the cameras. “They are tired of partisan politics and have sent a true outsider to Washington. It has been a hard-fought race, but I have to accept the will of the voters. Mr. President, I want to offer you my hand of cooperation. I appeal to all of Congress to do the same.”

  To Mark, Harley’s broad smile appeared sincere and the speech seemed perfect … until the camera lingered on Harley too long.

  “Are the cameras still on?” Harley asked. “Can I quit smiling now?”

  MARK WAS ECSTATIC WHEN HE OPENED HIS HOTEL DOOR THE following morning and found a stack of morning newspapers and a note that had been left there by Carl. The note simply read, “Enjoy!”

  He quickly thumbed through them, reading each headline.

  “President Stoltzfus — Better Learn to Spell It!”

  “An Amish White House? Hang On to Your Bonnet!”

  “Hail to the Hat!”

  “The Beards Are Back!”

  None of the headlines were meant in a mocking way — it was endearment and sheer amazement. Josiah Stoltzfus, an unknown latecomer, a write-in candidate, had won both the popular vote and the electoral college. There would be no counting of chads and no court challenges in this election. The decision was clear and unprecedented — America had elected an Amish president, and the populace was thrilled!

  Mark called Josiah’s room.

  “Well, did you get them?” Mark said.

  “The newspapers?”

  “Yes, sir. So what d’ya think, Mr. President?”

  “I gotta admit, you did it.”

  “You did it, sir. So what’s our first order of business, President Stoltzfus?”

  “Spending time with my family.”

  Mark knew that with all the excitement of the evening, Elizabeth and Josiah hadn’t been able to have much family time together. Neither had he and Cindy. So he decided to do likewise. He hung up the phone and spent the rest of the morning with Cindy and their kids. All of their lives were about to change in every imaginable way. Maybe they could try enjoying a little normalcy for a short while longer.<
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  INAUGURATION DAY SEEMED TO ARRIVE BEFORE ANYONE IN THE Stedman or Stoltzfus families had time to catch their breath. Elizabeth was both excited and nervous that day. She wasn’t used to such attention. Reporters had been speculating for weeks that this presidential inauguration would be a bit unusual, even by Washington’s standards, but Elizabeth hadn’t taken it as a slight.

  Someone from the Plain community being elected president? Unusual indeed. She laughed to herself as she got dressed.

  She and Josiah wore their best Amish attire, the clothes they would typically wear to a wedding back in Lancaster County. She knew her husband had told the American people that if elected he would be bringing his Amish ways to the White House, and since the people had elected him knowing that, Elizabeth saw no reason for them not to follow through with the promise.

  Not everyone agreed.

  “Washington’s gone from bailouts to baling hay!” was just one of Harley’s sound bites concerning Josiah’s win. But Harley’s opinion didn’t matter much to Elizabeth on that day. The American voters had invalidated his opinion, at least temporarily, and had elected her husband. Harley would have to wait another four years before even attempting another presidential run. In the meantime, President Josiah Stoltzfus was officially on his political honeymoon, and Elizabeth was humbly proud, if there were such an emotion.

  At the inauguration ceremony, Elizabeth couldn’t help but tear up as her husband stood in front of the chief justice on the steps of the Capitol Building and placed his right hand on the Bible. Then he began to repeat the inaugural oath …

  “I, Josiah Stoltzfus, do solemnly affirm that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

  At the end, he added, “So help me God.”

  It was a phrase traditionally added by most presidents, and Elizabeth was both pleased and not surprised that Josiah had followed suit. She knew Josiah would need God’s help to lead a country in such desperate straits, and she wanted him to have all the divine guidance he could get.