I grew up in a Democratic household in Iowa. This is my story.

Haha! I just thought that’d be funny to write. But it’s true; I did.

My mom was a Democrat. If you said anything stupid around her about it, she’d cut you. She was the Carroll County recorder for over twenty years, so she met all the Democrats who came through town. I wish I could remember and repeat the things she said about the Republicans who dared set foot in the blue county of Carroll. 

My dad, too, was 100% partisan. He voted for whoever was Irish.

He stopped telling us how he’d voted during the Reagan years. It drove my mom NUTS. I know it’s because he voted for Reagan. How could he not? Reagan played Knute Rockne, Notre Dame’s legendary football coach, also known as The Gipper, in the movies! And Notre Dame was my dad’s alma mater. And blue and gold are thicker than politics. 

Reagan’s people also created a sketchy myth that traced his family’s roots to Ballyporeen, the parish in South Tipperary my dad’s father came from. This made some of the Sheehans recoil in horror, but I could tell my dad secretly loved it.

When I’d ask him how he voted, he'd say, “I voted for the guy I’d most like to sit down and have a beer with.” Seemed like a good strategy to me, especially then.

I cast my first vote in a presidential election for Jimmy Carter. He seemed much more amiable than Gerald Ford when you thought about having a Hamm’s with him. I was studying to be a teacher then in college – and everybody knows how liberal we teachers were.

I always voted for the guy who seemed like he’d listen to others, and not just stick to politics as usual. When I lived in Minnesota in 1998, this meant I voted for Jesse Ventura for governor. You're just gonna have to trust me on this one, he seemed like the best choice compared to the other guys. Maybe you had to be there. Never mind.

Well, in other words, this strategy doesn’t always work out. 

Skip to 2007: I found myself in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, between jobs and trying to figure out how to turn the page to the next chapter in my work life. So I had some time on my hands when the presidential candidates started coming to town.

Here’s all I knew then. The price we’d gotten for the house we’d just sold in Carroll, Iowa, was startlingly low. The price we’d just paid for our new one in Cedar Rapids was startlingly high. But we weren’t worried. It was in a good location, close to the Rockwell Collins plant and surrounded by trees. Perfect for resale if we ever wanted to move.

We had three kids with student loans and a sparse job market and all of them were about to leave our health insurance plans with little chance of having their own. Two other kids we loved were engaged in the war in Afghanistan.

I started listening to the stump speeches. Mind you, this is when John Edwards was still looking feasible, with his Dennis Quaid grin and his “poor boy from the wrong side of town” routine. Hillary was coming off as a bit shrill. Remember that?

And about this Obama fellow. I’d seen him declare his bid on the steps of the Illinois state capitol. I didn’t think he had a chance. He didn’t look like he thought so either that day. I didn’t pay much attention.

As caucus time came around, I paid more attention. That’s how I found myself walking through the snow to go hear Barack Obama’s speech in Cedar Rapids on January 2, 2008 – the night before the caucus.

As I walked into the Veteran’s Memorial Building, an old-school hall on May’s Island in the Cedar River, the smiling and engaging young people manning the doors invigorated me.

I walked right up front to a spot below the podium. Steve Wonder music played. Flags and bunting adorned the hall. A 20-foot stained glass window created by Grant Wood glimmered down on the proceedings.

Out he came, and the crowd roared. He walked to the small podium and picked up the microphone – no teleprompter then -- and looked those of us down front straight in the eye as he talked.

Among other things, he told us he was running for president because time is running out for us to make good on the things we need to do for our kids. 

Here’s a little bit I recorded from that speech.

Looking at it now, what strikes me is this. He’s the same guy now that he was then; he just looks a little older now. He meant what he said then, and he means it now.

He’s gotten many of the things done he said he would. The economy went to hell in 2008. Our house barely sold for what we paid for it. We had to fire three realtors to get it done. 

But our kids have insurance and jobs and house prices are doing better. And those wars are ending. 

He’s an honest, intelligent, hard-working president who truly wants the best for every one of us. Not just a percentage of us. Not just the men. Not just the straight. Not just the corporate. Not just the Democrats.

I believe in him.

I could very much imagine sitting down to have a beer with him. And I don't even drink. 

Please vote tomorrow! Don’t sit this one out. There’s too much left to do.