Matt Santos

For the American musician, see Matthew Santos.

Matt Santos
The West Wing character
Jimmy Smits as Matt Santos
First appearance	Liftoff
Last appearance	Tomorrow
Portrayed by	Jimmy Smits
Information
Nickname(s)	Matt
Gender	Male
Occupation	President of the United States (season 7) President-elect of the United States (season 7) Presidential candidate (seasons 6-7) Three-term United States House Representative (D-TX) (seasons 2-7) Two-term Mayor of Houston (before season 1-season 1) Member, Houston City Council (before season 1) Lieutenant Colonel, United States Marine Corps (before season 1)
Spouse(s)	Helen Santos
Children	Peter and Miranda
Religion	Roman Catholic
Nationality	American

Matthew Vincente "Matt" Santos is a fictional character on the American television show The West Wing, played by Jimmy Smits. His initial appearance is as a Democratic U.S. Representative from Houston, Texas. According to West Wing writer and producer Eli Attie, Santos was based on the then Illinois State Senator (and later U.S. Senator and President) Barack Obama.^[1][2]

Personal life

Santos, a Catholic, was born at St. Joseph's Hospital in Houston, Texas. He was born in either 1963 (in 2005, Josh says Santos is 42) or in 1961 (in 2006, Santos himself says he is 45). One of seven children born to Luis and Marita Santos, he grew up in the Second Ward — the oldest Mexican-American neighborhood in Houston and home to six generations of the Santos family. Luis Santos was a barber, while Marita Santos was a domestic servant.

He has been married to Helen Santos (played by Teri Polo) for fifteen years, and they have two young children, Peter and Miranda, who are eleven and five, respectively, at the time of their father's inauguration.

Santos attended Walter Reed Junior High School in Texas. He then attended the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, graduating at the top of his class with a degree in Engineering. At Annapolis, he played football until he injured his knee. Santos speaks three languages (English, Spanish, and Portuguese). He was commissioned as an officer in the United States Marine Corps, ultimately achieving the rank of lieutenant colonel. Santos qualified as a combat pilot, and saw action during the first Persian Gulf War. Upon retiring from active duty in 1993 he served in the United States Marine Corps Reserves.

Santos was elected to the Houston City Council, where he served for two years until his election as mayor. He served for four years (two terms of two years) as mayor, during which he opened four new health-care clinics to serve Houston's families. As mayor, Santos also created a new housing assistance program to make rent more affordable for the city's two million residents. Santos was then elected to the United States House of Representatives during the 2000 midterm elections representing the 18th Congressional District and served for three terms. It was mentioned that during his third term as a congressman he had received a spot on the prestigious House Committee on Ways and Means, although he also served on the House Administration Committee ("the Siberia of committees") with then-congressman Bob Russell.

Presidential campaign

Santos is first seen as a member of United States House of Representatives, who while regarded as an effective legislator and a potential candidate for Governor of Texas is nonetheless about to retire due to his frustration with Washington politics and plans to return to Houston and open more health-care clinics alongside those he created while he was the Mayor there. However, then Deputy White House Chief of Staff Josh Lyman convinces him to run for President of the United States, and becomes his campaign manager. He began his run for the Democratic nomination as a long-shot candidate with little name recognition or funding; polls showed him far behind the sitting Vice President Bob Russell and the former Vice President John Hoynes. However, as the primaries progressed, Santos rose to third place in most opinion polls. On the day before the California primary, Hoynes was engulfed in a sex scandal. He had already been forced to resign as President Josiah Bartlet's Vice President in a similar scandal three years before, and his further sexual impropriety allowed Santos to receive the implicit endorsement of the Governor of California, helping him to win the primary in an upset victory.

One of his major Presidential campaign platform planks is the reform of public education in the United States. Santos says the school year should be at least 240 days out of the year, in order for America to more effectively compete in the world marketplace. He also supports increased teacher accountability through decreasing teacher tenure.

Picking up steam, Santos proceeded to win primaries in many more states. By the start of the Democratic National Convention, he had won enough delegates to virtually tie with the front-runner, Russell, and had won such major battleground states as Texas, Florida, Illinois, and Pennsylvania. Prior to the convention, Santos turned down Russell's offer of the Vice-Presidential nomination and aimed to win the top spot on the ticket.

During the convention, Governor Eric Baker of Pennsylvania, who had previously decided against running for President and turned down Russell's offer of the Vice-Presidential nomination, presented himself as a candidate from the floor, drawing delegate votes from all of the candidates and stretching the balloting to an unprecedented third day. When Will Bailey revealed to the press that Baker had concealed his wife's history of clinical depression, he lost substantial delegate support.

Ordered by the convention organizer, former White House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry, to step aside in favor of either Baker or Russell, Santos was given a chance to address the convention with the understanding that it would be his farewell speech.

Instead of withdrawing, however, Santos gave a rousing speech that swung the momentum in the balloting back to him. Thanks to the behind-the-scenes intervention of President Bartlet, who had decided to end the balloting before it further damaged the party's image, Santos received the support of a key New York teachers' union which had earlier spurned him because of his views on education. Santos clinched the nomination. After Gov. Baker declined the VP offer and Santos made it clear he would not consider retaining Russell as VP, he chose Leo as his Vice-Presidential nominee.

In the seventh season of the show, Congressman Santos and former Secretary McGarry ran against Senator Arnold Vinick of California, the Republican Party's Presidential nominee, and his running mate, Governor Ray Sullivan of West Virginia. Throughout the campaign, Santos and Vinick treat each other with mutual respect. (In the episode "King Corn," it is revealed that, two years before the election, Santos and Vinick co-sponsored an immigration reform bill that was defeated in committee on Capitol Hill.)

In Santos's only debate with Vinick, both candidates agreed to ignore the rules their campaigns had laboriously agreed upon and instead have, in Vinick's words, "a real debate," without time limits on their responses. During the debate, Santos reiterated his commitment to greater federal involvement in public education, opposed oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, supported a moratorium on the federal death penalty, and pledged never to go to war for oil. He also explained that he had initially supported the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) on the Ways and Means Committee, but then voted against it when special interest amendments were attached. He also criticized Senator Vinick for relying too heavily on tax cuts to grow the economy. Perhaps his most surprising comment of the night, though, came when he said that he "wasn't crazy" about his health care plan, since it would not provide universal coverage, but it was the best he thought he could get through Congress.

After a nuclear plant accident in San Andreo, California, Santos picked up ground in several states after it was revealed that Vinick was key in authorizing construction of the nuclear plant in question, rattling voters whose states contained prominent nuclear plants. Several days later, national polls showed that Santos was tied with Vinick at 44%.

Election aftermath

President-elect Santos taking the oath of office.

Despite the death of his running mate Leo McGarry on election night, Santos was narrowly elected President of the United States after defeating Arnold Vinick in the Electoral College by a vote of 272-266. Santos carried his home state of Texas, while Vinick won his home state of California; Santos clinched the election by winning Nevada with a margin of 30,000 votes. Despite the strong urging of his senior campaign staff, Vinick chose not to contest the results and conceded the election. Santos later offered Vinick the position of Secretary of State in his administration, a move not greeted with enthusiasm by his top advisors. Vinick accepted the offer under the condition that he would be free to shape policy at the State Department without interference from Democratic Party political operatives and on the promise that he could pick his own Deputy Secretary and advise on the selection of all Under Secretaries. They sealed this agreement while reviewing the President's "Daily Intelligence Briefing" and discussing how to resolve the situation in Kazakhstan vis-a-vis Russia and China. Reynolds (whom Vinick regarded as a disaster), Schmidt, Noah and Nancy McNally had also been on the shortlist for Secretary of State.

The last few episodes of the series cover the end of the Bartlet administration and the transition to the new one. Santos is forced to remain neutral while Democrats pick a new Speaker of the House, and he declines to tip the race in favor of his political mentor, Congressman Tim Fields (D-TX), who bitterly ends up losing out to Congressman Mark B. Sellner, a moderate Democrat who opposes Santos' centerpiece anti-lobbying bill. He also earns C.J. Cregg's ire when he makes a negative comment about President Bartlet's policy towards China, but it turns out Santos and President Bartlet have come up with a "good cop, bad cop" plan to try and scare China (and Russia) into ending their military incursions into Kazakhstan. Santos's administration takes shape in advance of his inauguration, with Josh Lyman being appointed as his Chief of Staff. Lyman recruits his old friend and former White House Deputy Communications Director Sam Seaborn as his deputy. From the Santos-McGarry campaign come Louise Thornton as the new Director of Communication, Ronna Beckman as the President's personal secretary while Donna Moss and Annabeth Schott join the First Lady's Office as Chief of Staff and Press Secretary respectively. Amy Gardner is offered the post of Director of Legislative Affairs, while Ainsley Hayes puts her name forward for the post of White House Counsel. Santos indicates his wish to appoint Oliver Babish as Attorney General. He selects Nancy McNally as Ambassador to the United Nations, though she was initially considered for Secretary of State. Santos also considers choosing Senator Swain of Rhode Island, a Republican, as his Secretary of Defense on the advice of Barry Goodwin, although Josh strongly opposed this as choosing a Republican Senator from a Blue State would be seen as a "political grab". It was also revealed that someone named Keenitz was Santos' choice for Agriculture Secretary, with the Kansas City Star discovering this and asking for comment. For Treasury Secretary, Santos chose between two highly-confirmable candidates; Connor, who was more popular among Democrats, and Rosenthal, who was more respected by Wall Street but had few administrative skills. Santos ultimately chose Rosenthal, as he would be better selling the administration's tax plan. Kate Harper was passed over for promotion to National Security Advisor, with this role instead going to someone named Glenn. His first choice for Vice President is Governor Eric Baker of Pennsylvania, a 2006 Democratic presidential contender who Santos had originally asked to be VP at the Democratic Convention, before selecting Leo McGarry after Baker declined on personal grounds. Congresswoman Carol Gellsey (D-FL) had been second on Santos' shortlist. Santos decides to nominate Baker under the terms of the 25th Amendment once his term has begun, rather than submitting his name to the Electoral College for virtually automatic appointment.

Presidential appointees

Cabinet officials

The Santos Cabinet
Office	Name	Term
President	Matt Santos	2007–
Vice President	Leo McGarry (John Spencer) (Vice President-Elect)	died before being sworn in–
	Eric Baker (Ed O'Neill)	2007–
Secretary of State	Arnold Vinick (Alan Alda)	2007–
Secretary of Treasury	Rosenthal	2007–
Attorney General	Oliver Babish (Oliver Platt)	2007–
Secretary of Agriculture	Keenitz	2007–
Chief of Staff	Joshua Lyman (Bradley Whitford)	2007–

See also

• The West Wing
• List of characters on The West Wing
• List of politicians on The West Wing
• List of The West Wing episodes

References

1. ^ Freedland, Jonathan (2008-02-21). "From West Wing to the real thing: Scriptwriters modeled TV's ethnic minority candidate on young Barack Obama". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/21/barackobama.uselections2008?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront. Retrieved 2008-02-23. 
2. ^ Ballard, Janette (2008-09-15). "Haven't we seen this election before?". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7616333.stm. Retrieved 2008-09-15.