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[P]ORTSMOUTH, N.H. — Greg and Amy Tatro are on a presidential mission.
The married history buffs, both 27, are determined to meet the next occupant of the Oval Office. As part of that quest, they hope to snap selfies with all of the current contenders, Republican and Democrat.
Using street smarts and strategy — but no selfie stick — the Vermont couple, who lives in Johnson, are well on their way.
“It’s nice to say we sat down and listened to all these people and that we are making an informed voting choice,” Amy said right before she and her husband attended a Democratic Party banquet in New Hampshire. They were in the Granite State to get an elusive shot with Bernie Sanders, their sixth candidate to date.
On the Republican side, they have met candidates Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, Scott Walker and Rand Paul. Sanders was their second Democrat. They came face to face with Hillary Clinton at an event in New Hampshire earlier this year.
“We figure if we meet as many as we can, especially those doing good in the polls, we can get a picture with the next president,” Greg said.
The Tatros aren’t planning trips to see candidates with flailing poll numbers, like former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee or Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. Their next target is Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who is beginning to move up.
Their effort got off to an admittedly rocky start.
“One of the first people we went to see was Scott Walker because of his high poll numbers,” Greg said of the Wisconsin governor, an early front-runner who dropped out late in the summer. Smiling, he said, “That worked out pretty well.”
The Tatros smile a lot, mostly at each other. They frequently finish each other’s sentences. They’re upbeat, always finding the positive, like viewing a three-hour drive to Portsmouth as an opportunity to listen to a book on tape about the residual effects of the Civil War on the South.
The Tatros fascination with presidents goes far deeper than the current election. They both have an unrivaled knowledge of presidential politics going back to America’s first elected leader, George Washington, and they have collected two bookshelves’ worth of presidential biographies.
They sprinkle their conversations with obscure presidential trivia: Greg noted that John Tyler, the 10th president, who took over after the death of William Henry Harrison, was the only president to be buried on “foreign soil” — in Richmond, Virginia, during the Civil War, when the state was a part of the Confederacy.
“Benjamin Harrison is the first president to have electricity in the White House,” Amy piped in, adding matter-of-factly, “And it was scary for him.”
“They had the light flipped on and they were so scared to turn it off that they just went to bed in the White House looking at the light,” Greg added.
Greg has read a biography on every president up to Calvin Coolidge; Amy has read as far as Benjamin Harrison. Some years they read five presidential biographies, others they only have time for two.
“As we read about the presidents we naturally got more and more into politics,” Greg said. “So we decided we should try and meet these guys while they are alive.”
Once their reading catches up to the current president, they say they are flying to Washington, D.C., to see famous historical relics.
Besides the current presidential contenders, they have met former President Bill Clinton (twice). And for Greg’s birthday last year, Amy bought plane tickets to Georgia so the two could witness Jimmy Carter teach a Sunday school lesson.
On a recent trip to Maine, the couple staked out the Bush compound in Kennebunkport, but didn’t stay long. They didn’t meet any members of the Bush clan, but snapped a photo of the elegant mansion on the Atlantic Ocean.
The two said they quarrel, albeit gently (no negative campaigning here), about their favorite president. Amy’s favorite president might be Ulysses Grant while Greg has a soft spot for Millard Fillmore.
The Tatros aren’t overtly political, and their fascination with the candidates comes mostly from their historical relevance.
“Time and again, when most of the presidents get into power, the office overwhelms them and they change,” Amy said. “They try to do what is best for America and the American people, and that’s what’s really nice to read in all the stories.”
They praised the rhetorical prowess of both Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton when recounting speeches they attended. The only contender they criticized was Donald Trump, albeit politely.
“He’s a little too colorful,” Greg said.
Amy isn’t so sure who she wants to win; she wants to see more candidates speak before she makes up her mind.
But Greg already knows who he wants to win: Bernie. “Only because he would build a presidential library near where I live and I could spend the rest of my life working there,” he said.
Amy and Greg met through a mutual friend at St. Michael’s College in Colchester. Romance blossomed and they soon became, well, a ticket. At St. Mike’s Halloween parties, Greg dressed up as both Joe Biden and Mitt Romney. His running mate helped make the costumes.
“I’m bipartisan in my Halloween costumes, thank you very much,” he said with pride.
Amy studied history, and Greg studied psychology. Amy is now in the final stretch of graduate school at Southern New Hampshire University. She’s writing her master’s thesis on Ulysses S. Grant.
The two teach at the North American Hockey Academy in Stowe. Their subjects include history, government, psychology and Latin.
Their leisure time is often politically oriented: They have traveled to numerous Civil War monuments and presidential homes. Their favorite movies include “Lincoln,” the HBO miniseries “Sam Adams” and “The Butler.”
“We do know a lot about presidents so when we start to see inaccuracies in movies we are like ‘Whoa, that’s not right,’” Amy said.
Before the Sanders event, the two laid out their well-tested game plan for ensuring photos. Selfies are easiest, and they only use a phone camera. The couple’s shift to phones came after Bill Clinton accidentally turned off their digital camera, mistaking it for the shutter button.
For better odds, they say, go to smaller events. Map out the entrances and exits. If a candidate is doing a book signing, you’re pretty much guaranteed of getting a photo.
At a ritzy Portsmouth hotel by the water where Sanders was schedule to speak, the couple staked out a table close to the emergency exit where they assumed Sanders would enter. They were right, and the Vermont senator slipped through the door right before giving his stump speech.
They took a selfie of Sanders from a distance before he spoke as a precautionary measure in case they didn’t meet him afterward, but they really wanted a close-up.
Following the speech, the Tatros rushed over to Sanders, who shook their hands but then was promptly whisked out the emergency exit.
“A swing and a miss,” Greg said after he left, looking a bit dejected. “At least he shook my hand.”
Amy was dispirited, too, It was the first candidate they had seen but couldn’t get a photo with side by side.
“He might still come back out, you never know,” Amy said.
But Sanders didn’t return. It was time to leave, but when they did, they vowed to keep tracking the Vermont senator for that elusive close-up.
