Samuel Wurzelbacher gained the nickname "Joe the Plumber" for expressing working-class concerns about taxes to then-candidate Barack Obama during a stop to the region.
The Toledo-area plumber defeated Steve Kraus, a Sandusky real estate agent, early Wednesday to grab the GOP nomination in Ohio's 9th Congressional District.
He faces an uphill climb in the fall against veteran U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, who won the Democratic primary. The newly drawn district snaking along the Lake Erie shoreline from Toledo to Cleveland tilts toward Democrats.
