Donna Moss - Character Biography

Character Biography

Donna was born outside of Warroad, Minnesota, to an Irish-American father and an Italian-American mother. Donna's United States citizenship was briefly revoked after the Minnesota town in which she was born ended up in Canada due to border changes. However, her citizenship was quickly restored after the discovery of a grandfather clause in the law. Donna has been identified by Josh as Protestant. He also made a remark about her Catholic school uniform, although it could have been his sarcasm.

She later moved to Wisconsin where she attended University of Wisconsin–Madison and dropped out half-way through to support her boyfriend as he went through medical school. After breaking up with her boyfriend, Donna left Madison and drove to New Hampshire to work for the "Bartlet for America" campaign, even going so far as to pretend she'd already been hired as Josh Lyman's assistant. Josh discovered the deception but was somewhat amused by it and, impressed by her initiative, eventually hired her. It is mentioned that she briefly left the campaign to return to her boyfriend, but returned following an incident when, after Donna sprained her ankle in a car accident, her boyfriend chose to meet his friends for a drink rather than immediately pick her up from the hospital.

Donna remained Josh's assistant during Josiah Bartlet's first presidential term and the beginning of his second. Her job during this time usually took the form of little more than a secretary (albeit in an unusually challenging and glorified environment) until Josh sent her as an observer for an American diplomatic mission to Gaza in response to her request for opportunities for job growth. While in Gaza, Donna was seriously injured as a result of a terrorist attack on the American convoy. She gradually recovered from these injuries.

Donna returned to her duties at the White House but eventually quit her job (as depicted in the season 6 episode "Impact Winter") to become senior aide to Will Bailey, Vice President Bob Russell's presidential campaign manager (as revealed in the episode "Faith-Based Initiative"). Her new position placed her in direct conflict with Josh, who had convinced US Congressman Matt Santos to also run for the Democratic nomination, with himself as campaign manager. After Santos won the nomination, Donna applied to work for Josh at the Santos campaign. However, all of the personal attacks on Santos that Donna made as Russell's press secretary forced Josh to refuse her application, although he did reveal during the job interview he missed her "every day" ("The Ticket").

Later, on the Santos campaign trail, Donna was hired (unbeknownst to Josh) by Communications Director Louise "Lou" Thornton as a campaign spokesperson. Josh was initially upset with Lou for hiring Donna, and implied in a tense conversation with Donna he was reluctant to hire her since he felt betrayed by her decision to work for a competing candidate he, her "mentor", did not support. After Santos's victory, Donna was offered a position in the new administration as Deputy White House Press Secretary. However, having become close with Helen Santos during the campaign, she was also offered the position as Chief of Staff to the First Lady. She chose to accept this offer, as she felt she could not work for Josh while something was also happening between them personally. Her large White House office, which she was shocked to see, symbolizes her growth since the beginning of the series, when her place of work was a cubicle in Josh's bullpen.

Donna is a Democrat, but is sometimes critical of the logic behind various Democratic Party policies. Her political debates with Josh, which are often left unresolved, are one of the show's trademark methods of exploring multiple sides of an issue.