Matt Santos - Presidential Campaign

Presidential Campaign

Santos is first seen in 2005 as a member of United States House of Representatives, who is regarded as an effective legislator and a potential candidate for Governor of Texas. Despite his age and policy savvy, Santos is about to retire due to his frustration with Washington politics. He plans to return to Houston and open more health-care clinics alongside those he created while he was that city's Mayor. 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 begins his run for the Democratic nomination as a long-shot candidate with little name recognition or funding; polls show him far behind the sitting Vice President Bob Russell and the former Vice President John Hoynes. However, as the primaries progress, Santos rises to third place in most opinion polls. On the day before the California primary, Hoynes is 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 allows Santos to receive the implicit endorsement of the Governor of California, resulting 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, so America can more effectively compete in the global economy. He also supports abolishing teacher tenure in order to increase accountibility.

As he gained momentum, Congressman Santos won 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 battleground states including Texas, Florida, Illinois, and Pennsylvania. Prior to the convention, Santos turned down Russell's offer of the Vice-Presidential nomination, still intending 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 was to be Russell's running mate, presented himself as a candidate from the floor. The Pennsylvanian drew delegate votes from all of the candidates and extended the balloting to an unprecedented third day. When Russell campaign manager Will Bailey revealed to the press that Baker had concealed his wife's history of clinical depression, Baker lost essential delegate support.

Because many delegates had deserted the Pennsylvania governor, the convention returned to the status it had been on the first day, with Russell and Santos as the frontrunners. To secure a Democratic Nominee, Santos was ordered by the convention organizer, former White House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry, to step aside in favor of either Baker or Russell. The Texan 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 energized the convention and convinced them of his sincerity. This speech persuaded President Bartlet to intervene on Santos' behalf; he speaks to Teacher Union and New York delegate Ernie Gambelli, who had previously thought Santos was "anti-teacher," to ensure his nomination. After Governor Baker declined to be the Texas Congressman's running mate and Santos rejected Russell as a potential VP, Santos chose former White House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry as his Vice-Presidential nominee.

In the seventh season of the show, Congressman Santos and former Secretary McGarry run 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 professional 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' only debate with Vinick, both candidates agreed to ignore the rules their campaigns had laboriously agreed upon. Instead, they had, 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 voted against it when special interest amendments were attached. He criticized Senator Vinick for relying too heavily on tax cuts to stimulate the economy. However, his most surprising comment of the night came when he said that he "wasn't crazy" about his health care plan, since it was ambiguous enough to pass the Congress, and voiced his opinion that Medicare should be part of a public option for the whole country.

After a nuclear plant accident in San Andreo, California, Santos picked up momentum in battleground states for his anti-nuclear power views. This newfound momentum becomes more apparent after the media reports Vinick was key in authorizing construction of the San Andreo Plant. Several days later, national polls showed Santos tied with Vinick in the Popular Vote at 44%.