When Matt Ferguson was a high school sophomore in 2004, a group of his friends left a Christmas present on his doorstep-a life-size, cardboard cutout of President George W. Bush.
Ferguson had volunteered with the Miami County, Ohio, Republican Party during Bush's re-election campaign earlier that year. "That's when I started building the relationships that have really helped me out," says the 2010 Bluffton University alumnus, who met a number of local officials, including his U.S. Rep., and now Speaker of the House, John Boehner.