Mandy Hampton - Storyline

Storyline

Mandy Hampton was a political consultant who left high-paying and prestigious public relations firm to work for top politicians in the public sphere. Extremely ambitious, Mandy had a reputation as a savvy political strategist and no-nonsense negotiator. She has a bachelor's degree in art history, a master's degree in communications and a Ph.D. in political science. Mandy starts out the show as an advisor to Democratic Senator Lloyd Russell, a political challenger to President Josiah Bartlet who opposes many of his policies. She was also dating the senator, which angered Deputy White House Chief of Staff Josh Lyman, who used to date her himself. In the second episode, "Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc", Mandy ultimately leaves the senator, and stops dating him, when he defies her wishes and tables a bill in committee that she planned to fight vigorously for. As a result, Mandy is hired as a media consultant for Bartlet, much to the chagrin of Josh. In her new capacity, she reports directly to Toby Ziegler, the White House Communications Director and Josh Lyman, the White House Deputy Chief of Staff.

Before leaving Russell's employment, she writes a memo to him deeply critical of Bartlet's administration. This memo eventually surfaces in the media and becomes a public embarrassment for the Bartlet administration in the episode "Let Bartlet Be Bartlet", leading to her being cut out of the policy-making loop for a while until President Bartlet ordered his senior staff to let her out of the doghouse. In "The State Dinner", when the Federal Bureau of Investigation wants to use force to take down a militia involved a hostage situation, Mandy strongly urges the president to exhaust all peaceful solutions first, despite Josh's advice to the contrary. Mandy argues "the greatest threat to democracy" are not "the nuts" but rather "the unbridled power of the state over its citizens". However, the situation ends poorly when the hostage-takers shoot and critically injure an FBI mediator and the FBI then ends the standoff by force, and Mandy to become physically sickened by the events. Mandy Hampton loved to drive fast cars.