Iowa high school senior scoring big on GOP presidential autographs

WILTON - It's not unusual for folks at political rallies to seek autographs from the candidates.

High school senior Julia Smith is one of them, but she's throwing the candidates a curveball. She gives them a baseball to sign.

'It's kind of comical because they're used to signing shirts and caps and pieces of paper or books,” her mother, Dawn Smith, said. 'So this kind of gets their attention.”

So far, Julia, who will graduate from high school in Durant before the end of the year, has scored the signatures of all of the 2016 Republican presidential nomination hopefuls except Donald Trump. She met him last winter when she was working as a House page at the Iowa Capitol but hadn't started her baseball autograph collection at that time.

She hopes to complete her lineup when Trump is back in Iowa.

Last Sunday, she added retired physician Ben Carson's autograph to the baseball when he spoke at a fundraiser in Wilton. It was a quick transaction as Carson was on his way to another event.

'When I get the chance, I ease my way up to them, ask them, and they just sign it,” Julia said. 'He didn't say anything but ‘hello.' ”

She says getting the autographs of all of the candidates probably is possible only in Iowa.

'Living anywhere but Iowa, it would be hard to get the chance to meet them,” said Smith, 18.

Smith is no stranger to politics.

Her mother, Dawn, served three terms as Durant's mayor before being elected, as a Republican, to the Cedar County Board of Supervisors last year. .

'Julia's grown up with the whole election process,” Dawn Smith said. 'It's a fun way to interact with candidates. She's always been interested in politics, and this is her first election to vote in.”

Julia isn't sure what she'll do with the autographed baseball, but said she'll hang on to it.

'It might become a family heirloom someday,” he said.