Main Characters | House of Representatives | The Senate | Other Politicians | Other Characters
US Politicians
Danny Chung
Governor of Minnesota
The Governor of Minnesota and a decorated veteran of the war in Iraq, something he reminds everyone of in each of his appearances. He is established early in the series as a political rival of Selina's and in season 3 he runs against her for the party's presidential nomination.
- Brief Accent Imitation: Dan wrote a fake anecdote about him meeting a woman named Juanita but accidentally used the same story in a speech Selina gives the same day. When Chung wants to use this to attack Selina as a plagiarist, Dan implies he would reveal Chung never met Juanita either...Chung: Oh, I did. As I recall it went something like this... (exaggerated Mexican accent) "Meester Ching, I come to America to work. I send money home but life here is so hard for me."
- Everyone Has Standards: As much of vain political climber as he is, even he's put off by how Selina runs her campaign, which is why he declines being her running mate.
- Fake Ultimate Hero: It's heavily implied that his various glorious military anecdotes didn't actually happen, or happened very differently from the narrative he pushes.
- It's All About Me: Every other time he speaks he's boasting about how great he is.
- The Rival: He's one of Selina's most persistent rivals, ambitiously trying to claw his way toward the presidency but ultimately failing.
George Maddox
The Secretary of Defense. In season 3, he unexpectedly resigns from his post and runs for the presidential nomination, only to quit after a poor performance in the primary debate.
- The Rival: He's a rival to Selina in the race for the presidency, and unlike Selina's relationship with Chung, there's genuine animosity between the two.
Joe Thornhill
A former coach of an unspecified Major League Baseball team and one of Selina's rivals for the presidential nomination. He constantly uses sports analogies to describe politics, something which greatly annoys Selina and her staff. Despite a good early start in the primaries, he later loses momentum in the race.
- Dumb Jock: He is not necessarily aware of many political issues, and Team Selina certainly considers him one.
- Sympathetic Adulterer: In-universe, right when Selina is about to expose him for previously cheating on his wife he confesses to it on live television and says that since his wife forgave him he hopes America will too.
Buddy Calhoun
The Nevada Secretary of State, then later Governor of Nevada, and a candidate for President in the 2020 election. In season 6, he's shown to be engaged to Amy Brookheimer, who's working as his campaign manager to the gubernatorial race.
- Armored Closet Gay: His appearance in Season 7 plays up this trope, where he is the fiercest advocate for banning gay marriage, despite constantly making Freudian Slips about wanting to be surrounded by men in a bathroom.
- Attack of the Political Ad: Averted. Buddy is extremely uncomfortable about running an attack ad lambasting his opponent's wife's history of drug use.
- Nice Guys Finish Last: Both politically and romantically. He wants to run a clean campaign and gets increasingly upset at the vitriolic attack ads Amy runs, so he suspends his campaign so he can spend more time with her. This causes Amy to dump him and go back to Washington.
- Sorry Ociffer: Buddy is caught driving drunk and flirting with the female officer, even going as far as to expose himself to her.
President Stuart Hughes
The incumbent President when the series begins, he constantly ignores Selina unless he needs her as a convenient scapegoat for his latest scandal. In Season 3, he decides not to seek reelection before unexpectedly resigning after the First Lady attempts suicide and has to be hospitalized.
- The Ghost: We never see or hear him, although characters are constantly talking about him or to him. The one time we see Selina go to a face to face meeting with him, it's behind closed doors.
- Humiliation Conga: What little we see of his presidency shows it going very poorly. He leads his party to a disastrous defeat in the midterms, he gets caught in the spy scandal, he's threatened with impeachment and then his decision not to run for reelection gets outted by Jonah.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: It's implied he at least partially decided to resign after FLOTUS' suicide attempt as way of getting out from under and leaving his presidency with what little dignity he had left.
- Pet the Dog: Even if it was done for partially selfish reasons, his decision to resign to care for his wife is one of the most decent things any politician does in this series.
- Resigned in Disgrace: Ultimately averted. On one hand, politically he had destroyed himself after the Uzbekistan spy scandal and nobody in his party was sad to see him go. But on the other, the stated reason for his resignation, his wife's worsening mental condition, does earn him enough sympathy that he's able to leave office with some grace and he is later appointed to the Supreme Court by President Montez.
- The Reveal: We finally learn his name in the episode where he resigns: it's Stuart Hughes.
Foreign Politicians
Minna Häkkinen
A Finnish politician and stateswoman, first introduced in Season 2 as the Prime Minister of Finland. She subsequently makes appearances once a season as she moves on to an international career as an economics writer, the head of the IMF, and a high-ranking United Nations diplomat.
- The Comically Serious: One of her quirks is being comically blunt.
- Fee Fi Faux Pas: Accidentally divulges some off-the-cuff remarks from Selina about the Second Amendment to Jonah, who leaks it to the press.
- Funny Foreigner: Her other defining characteristic - she and Selina have some incredibly awkward banter over the course of the show.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: In her last few appearances Minna frequently brings up that Selina voted against her nomination to be head of the IMF.
- Out-of-Character Moment: In "Georgia", she is uncharacteristically brisk when meeting with the despotic Georgian president.Murman: And Ms. Häkkinen, how are things on the international busybody circuit?
Minna: (coldly) Fine, thank you.
Murman: I was sorry to see that your latest strongly-worded condemnation did nothing to stop the recent genocide in the Congo. - Principles Zealot: After Selina accidentally tells Minna about committing a war crime, Minna reports her to Interpol as international law requires... then turns right around and offers Selina sanctuary in the Finnish embassy until it blows over.
- Too Much Information: During the election monitoring in Georgia, she goes into candid detail about her romantic and sexual relationship with the opposition candidate, much to Selina's disgust.
President Lu Chi-Jung
The Chinese President contemporaneous with the Meyer and the Montez administrations. He has an antagonistic relationship with President Meyer.
- Completely Unnecessary Translator: In his first appearance at Camp David, he has an interpreter on retainer in his face-to-face meetings with Selina to translate their conversations. However, he reveals at the end of the episode that he is completely fluent in English.
- Enemy Mine: To Selina. While the relationship between Selina and President Lu is fairly hot and cold, they both rely on cooperation and backdoor deals to further their own interests from Season 5 on.
- Everyone Has Standards: While he certainly doesn't complain and enthusiastically agrees to the deal, he is quite surprised that Selina would allow him to revoke Tibetan sovereignty again just in exchange for meddling in the election, given how hard she fought to make freeing Tibet her own legacy."...Are you fuckin' kidding me? Is being president in a democracy even that great [that you'd do such a thing]?"
- Failure Gambit: He reveals that he's been helping rig the 2020 primary in Selina's favor because he wants another Montez presidency, and Meyer is the most likely opponent for Montez to be able to beat in the general.
- Language Fluency Denial: He will switch between speaking perfect English to pretending to not speak English in situations when he doesn't want to talk to Selina.Selina: You don't just *forget* how to speak English... he just went full Chinaman on me!
Murman Shalikashvili
The dictatorial president of Georgia introduced when Selina is part of the international team overseeing the first free Georgian elections. He wins the election by bribing Selina but is overthrown in a military coup.
- The Bus Came Back: At the end of his first appearance in "Georgia" he's arrested by gun-toting officers of the new military junta, but he surprisingly returns the next season in "Oslo" saying that Russia invaded his country and reinstalled him into power.Murman: Factory reboot!
- Faux Affably Evil: He loves to tell long-winded stories about growing up in the Georgian countryside and is always smiling. However he's a brutal dictator who imprisons journalists and attempted to poison the opposition candidate.
- Politically Correct Villain: He tells a story about killing a political enemy but admits he changes her gender to a man when he tells the story because of the #MeToo movement.Selina: Chivalry isn't dead.
Murman: No, her name was Svetlana and she's definitely dead.
Selina: Yeah, that story does work better with a man.
