Samuel 'Joe the Plumber' Wurzelbacher — Who Confronted Obama In 2008 — Dead At 49

CAMPBELLSPORT, WI — Samuel “Joe the Plumber” Wurzelbacher, who shot to fame overnight in 2008 when he confronted then-presidential candidate Barack Obama about his tax plan, died Sunday in Wisconsin. He was 49.

Wurzelbacher had recently battled Stage 3 pancreatic cancer, according to an online fundraiser created to support his family. He died at his residence in Campbellsport, roughly 60 miles north of Milwaukee, The New York Times reported.

"The only thing I have to say is that he was a true patriot," Joey Wurzelbacher — whose father had the middle name Joseph and went by Joe — told the Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Joe Wurzelbacher was a plumber in the Toledo, Ohio, suburbs when he encountered Obama during a campaign stop in front of his house the October before the 2008 election. Days later, Obama's Republican opponent, U.S. Sen. John McCain, repeatedly cited "Joe the Plumber" in a presidential debate.

Wurzelbacher’s sudden fame turned him into a sought-after voice for many anti-establishment conservatives, and he traveled the country speaking at tea party rallies and conservative gatherings.

In 2012, he made a bid for a U.S. House seat in Ohio, but he lost in a landslide to Democrat Marcy Kaptur in a district heavily tilted toward Democrats. He eventually left politics and returned to plumbing.

Wurzelbacher married his wife, Katie, in 2011. He is also survived by three young children as well as Joey Wurzelbacher, his adult son from a previous marriage.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.