Then her husband had a stroke four days before the primary for the U.S. Senate. Suddenly, the reluctant political spouse became the de facto candidate. “I just had to survive, I just had to go,” she says of that time. Did she consider asking John to step out of the race? “It wasn’t my decision to make,” she says. “If you have the ability to make lives better, then it’s your duty to do so. And if he has the green light from every doctor, then I support that.”

To find herself center stage in one of cycle’s most-watched Senate races is one of the many times Gisele has found herself somewhere she never expected to be.

[That certainly might explain why the Fettermans didn’t withdraw after the stroke. Gisele wants to be the de facto Senator, too. Also, let’s screen-shot this before Kara Voght deletes it from her story in the same way she deleted it from her Twitter feed — Ed]