Matt Santos
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| Matthew Vincente Santos | |
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office January 20, 2007 |
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| Preceded by | Josiah Bartlet |
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| Succeeded by | Incumbent |
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| Born | 1961 Texas, USA |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Helen Santos |
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.
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[edit] Personal life
Santos was born at St. Joseph's Hospital in Texas. 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.
The show has introduced some conflicting information with regard to Santos's age. In one episode, Josh Lyman remarks that, at 42, Santos is too young to retire from Congress. However, Santos himself later says that he was baptized 45 years ago. Santos presumably knows his age a little better than Josh did at the time he made that statement, which was before they began working together.
Santos attended the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, graduating at the top of his class; at Annapolis, he played football until he injured his knee. He was the first member of his family to attend and graduate from college. He was commissioned as an officer in the United States Marine Corps, where he was qualified as a pilot. Santos flew missions as a combat pilot during the first Gulf War. Since retiring from active duty in 1993 he has served in the United States Marine Corps Reserves.
Santos was elected to the Houston City Council in 1994, where he served for two years until his election as mayor in 1996. He served for four years as mayor where he opened four new health 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 mid-term 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.
[edit] Presidential campaign
Santos is first seen as a member of United States House of Representatives who is about to retire. 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 two years before, and his further sexual imprompriety 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. Prior to the convention, Santos turned down Russell's offer of the vice-Presidential nomination and decided to try 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 members of the Russell campaign 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 Secretary of Labor and 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 teacher's union which had earlier spurned him because of his views on education. Santos clinched the nomination, choosing Leo McGarry 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. Several days later, national polls showed that Santos was tied with Vinick at 44%.
[edit] Victory
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.
The last few episodes of the series cover the end of the Bartlet administration and the transition to the new one. Santos' 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 Communications, Ronna Beckman as the President's personal secretary and Bram Howard as his personal aide, 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, whilst Ainsley Hayes puts her name forward for the post of White House Counsel. Santos indicates his wish to appoint Oliver Babish as Attorney General and Nancy McNally as Ambassador to the United Nations. His first choice for Vice President is Eric Baker, the early front-runner for the Democratic nomination in 2006 who dropped out before the New Hampshire primary then staged a surprise come-back at the deadlocked convention before conceding to Santos; Santos decides to nominate Baker to Congress once his term has begun, rather than submitting his name to the Presidential electoral college for automatic appointment.
[edit] Trivia
In real life, no sitting congressman has been elected to the Presidency since James A. Garfield in 1880 (although this may or may not be true in the "West Wing" world). America has had no President of Hispanic descent, and only one who was a Roman Catholic (John F. Kennedy, although the character of Jed Bartlet is also Catholic).
Jimmy Smits appeared with John Spencer, who plays running mate Leo McGarry, in LA Law.
[edit] See also
- The West Wing
- The West Wing Presidential election, 2006
- List of characters on The West Wing
- List of politicians on The West Wing
- List of The West Wing episodes
| Preceded by: Josiah Bartlet |
President of the United States, The West Wing 2007 – present |
Incumbent |
