For most Vermonters, neighboring New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary brings the challenge of enduring seemingly endless campaign commercials. For Greg and Amy Tatro, it offers something more: The chance to take a selfie with a potential future commander in chief.
The Johnson couple, political history buffs since meeting at St. Michael’s College in Colchester a decade ago, has visited the homes of nearly half of the nation’s presidents, from George Washington’s in Virginia to Chester Arthur’s in Fairfield, Vermont (tackling them in chronological order, the thirtysomethings have yet to tour fellow home-stater Calvin Coolidge’s Plymouth Notch property).
But for all their shared passion — his first gift to her was a Mount Vernon pewter pendant necklace, they married on same date as Grover Cleveland’s inaugural White House wedding and their Niagara Falls honeymoon featured a detour to Millard Fillmore’s house — they felt something missing.
“It’s not as much fun to see a dead president,” Greg says. “We wanted to see if we could meet a living one.”
And so they’re aiming to take a selfie with every 2020 White House aspirant — even if they didn’t foresee the biggest challenge wouldn’t be pinning down the ever-expanding field but instead their own U.S. senator, Bernie Sanders.
Their story starts in 2010, when Greg accompanied his grandmother to a pricey New Hampshire Democratic Party fundraising dinner to take a picture with former President Bill Clinton.
“I brought it back to Amy,” Greg recalls, “and said, ‘I wish you could be in this photo.’”
And so the couple drove to Burlington to see President Barack Obama in 2012 and bought plane tickets to Georgia to watch former President Jimmy Carter teach Sunday school in 2014.
“Obama shook hands with donors and special people,” Greg recalls, “but it’s hard for everyone else to get into that section.”
“We thought it might be fun to see people before they’re president,” Amy says. “It would be a lot cheaper, too.”
Confirming that, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie quickly agreed to a selfie during a Vermont visit in 2013. That led the couple to the Granite State to snap shots with 2016 candidates Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton, Rand Paul and Scott Walker, all with the idea they’d ultimately land a photo with a future president.
The plan’s only hiccup: They didn’t anticipate the need to seek out Donald Trump.
Undeterred, the couple is back on the campaign trail. They started with former Vice President Joe Biden, who visited Burlington in 2018, and since have traveled to New Hampshire to meet, in alphabetical order, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, John Hickenlooper, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O’Rourke, Elizabeth Warren, Marianne Williamson and Andrew Yang.
In most cases — take Michael Bloomberg’s visit to Burlington last month — the couple simply has arrived in advance, waited several hours and snagged a selfie.
Greg and Amy Tatro with Bernie Sanders. Provided photo 
Greg and Amy Tatro with Elizabeth Warren. Provided photo 
Greg and Amy Tatro with former Vice President Joe Biden. Provided photo 
Greg and Amy Tatro with Pete Buttigieg. Provided photo 
Greg and Amy Tatro with Beto O’Rourke. Provided photo 
Greg and Amy Tatro and their son, Eisen, with Andrew Yang. Provided photo
Yet for years, one candidate remained elusive: Sanders, their fellow Vermonter. The home-stater seemed an easy get when they purchased tickets to a Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Democratic Party fundraising dinner he was speaking at in 2015.
“Our theory was there wouldn’t be a huge crowd,” Greg recalls, “and we could walk up to Bernie as we did with Christie.”
Instead, Sanders gave his speech and sped out the door.
“We were super bummed,” Greg says. “Every other one of the top 10 candidates we met we got on our first try.”
The couple had no better luck on their second and countless subsequent tries, which often required finding someone to babysit their now 3-year-old son.
“We named him Eisen after the president,” his father says.
“When he’s bad he’s Eisenhower,” his mother adds.
The couple had high hopes upon arriving in Montpelier for Sanders’ 2020 campaign kickoff rally the Saturday of last Memorial Day weekend. Instead, the candidate again fled after his remarks, leaving the couple with one last option.
Weeks earlier, they had befriended a New Hampshire man named Carlos Cardona. They didn’t know he’d soon be profiled as “an unlikely political mogul” by the Washington Post — and hosting a rare house party for Sanders.
A small backyard event seemed the perfect place for a selfie. But when they arrived last Memorial Day, they discovered a crowd of 350 people. The couple felt a sinking sense of déjà vu as Sanders began his stump speech. Then he surprised everyone by ending it with a question: Who wants a photo?
“We worked for four years to get this,” Greg says of the result.
In it, Sanders is smiling.
“I hope it’s because he saw a couple of Vermonters and heard our story,” Greg says.
Whatever the reason, the couple is happy, too.
“Bernie had been our elusive white whale,” Amy says.
“But now he’s a piece of our larger journey,” Greg says. “I still pull out the photo and think, ‘Wow, we did this.’ We’re not rich and powerful, we’re just normal Joes who live in small-town Vermont. How humbling and amazing is it that instead of going to a gravesite, you can meet living history?”
