Ann Romney on the Campaign Trail

Today we’re catching up with Mitt Romney’s best ambassador on the campaign trail… intrepid Ann Romney.

While maintaining a full schedule, she is also managing her health:

Trail no obstacle for Ann Romney

For Ann Romney, wife of presidential candidate Mitt Romney, proper nutrition is not about looking thin onstage. Eating healthy is one of the ways Romney, 62, manages her multiple sclerosis, a chronic neurological disease that she has lived with for more than a decade. It has been in remission since 2002.

Despite the disease, she is the only Republican spouse in the race so far maintaining her own campaign schedule, traveling to a different state each week.

A casual observer can see no hint of the disease that once made it difficult for her to walk. A mother of five sons and grandmother to 16, she speaks to campaign gatherings about her husband’s commitment to his family and his respect for her role raising the family; she takes a pass on policy debates.

Duprey said that on a typical day Romney will do three to four events, while making phone calls and writing personal notes in between. Days typically run from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and can include driving up to 200 miles.

In addition to having multiple sclerosis, Romney had a cancerous lump removed from her breast in 2008. A routine mammogram showed a noninvasive early stage of breast cancer. The abnormal cells were removed through a lumpectomy, and Romney went through several weeks of radiation. She has not had any aftereffects, son Tagg Romney said.

When Mitt and Ann were in Michigan earlier this month for the Republican Leadership Conference on Mackinac Island, we learned a bit more about Ann during an interview:

Ann Davies and Mitt Romney...circa 1966.

Q. You have some pretty strong Michigan ties—including Northern Michigan. We’d love to hear.

A. I grew up in Michigan and my family had a summer cottage in Manistee on Lake Michigan. These are my stomping grounds. I just love Northern Michigan—every summer it was Manistee. I had two brothers, so I was a tomboy and we’d spend all our time swimming in Lake Michigan—and you know the water was cold and I didn’t even know it was cold. But I also loved exploring the woods. I’d catch frogs, the really giant ones, and my mom would make frog legs for us.

The other thing I did—I was such a tomboy—I would catch blue racers and wrap them around my neck and wrap them around my wrist and just walk around with snakes all over me. And I’m not a snake person. I don’t know how I did that! I just loved the woods and exploring and just being a kid in Northern Michigan. It feels like home when I come up here. It’s of one of my favorite places in the world. And coming to the Mackinac conference it’s like, Oh yeah, we get to go to Northern Michigan!

Mrs. Romney was asked what Michigan could expect under a Romney administration:

Four years ago, when we came back to the state to campaign, Michigan was already really in trouble. Everything was shutting down. It just broke our hearts. Driving through Detroit now is just shocking. Mitt and I grew up in Michigan’s heyday. His father was governor during its heyday. And it just seems like Michigan doesn’t need to be this way now. It’s got to get restored to where it was. I’m looking forward to him being being president and helping Michigan get manufacturing jobs back here and making it easier for businesses to be established. It would be very important to us to see Michigan revitalized.

As teenagers, did Mitt and Ann begin a summer romance on Mackinac Island? Continue reading here.

More…

… [S]he jokes about bathroom messes, cooking for a huge family and personal struggles with her husband’s public life.

She reminds voters, in a most genuine way, that Mitt Romney is a father, a hand-holding husband, a high school sweetheart. …
[...]
“Sometimes it’s like, ‘Mom, what did you say?’ But she says things he can’t say about himself, really helps humanize him,” said 41-year-old Tag Romney, the couple’s eldest child. “She’s a very good resource. … And she’s less concerned with trying to package things so we win and more about telling the truth that this is who we are.”
[...]
Mitt Romney often reflects on how they first crossed paths at a Michigan elementary school but didn’t start dating until high school. He introduces his wife as his “sweetheart” and she introduces him as a family man and business leader. …

Her grandfather, the son of a coal miner from Wales, couldn’t afford to send all four children to college. The children were forced to pick just one who would receive an education, Mitt Romney said. They settled on Ann’s father, who would earn his diploma and later open a steel company that would employ his siblings.
[...]
Political assets aside, her mere presence seems to help relax her husband. They are not shy about public affection, and he regularly squeezes his wife’s hand, even when the cameras are not rolling.

Mrs. Romney was in South Carolina last week (9/29/11) to meet with Spartanburg County GOP activists, attend a City Hall meeting with the Republican Women of the Golden Strip, and to submit Governor Romney’s primary election papers:

COLUMBIA, SC – Ann Romney made her husband Mitt’s candidacy in South Carolina official today, handing his filing papers and a check for the $35 thousand filing fee to state Republican Party chairman Chad Connelly.

She [Ann] said that her husband would now be “actively campaigning” in the state … and that they are “encouraged” by the support they’ve received in the state.

SC GOP Party Chairman Chad Connelly had this to say about Mrs. Romney:

… [A] candidate’s spouse can help connect voters to the candidate on a personal level.

“When campaigning on their own, spouses can be a powerful voice,” Connelly said. “Ann Romney is a perfect example. Her battle with cancer is inspirational and sheds light on Governor Romney’s character and faith.”

(emphasis added )

Also, while visiting the Palmetto State, Ann Romney was Governor Nikki Haley’s overnight guest at the governor’s mansion.


Ann Romney is refreshing – and, like Gov Romney, a worker!

► Jayde Wyatt