Helen Santos is the wife of President Matthew Santos and current First Lady of the United States. She and Matt have two children, a son named Peter and a daughter named Miranda.
Helen and Matt have been married for 15 years as of November 2006, placing their marriage in 1991 (Ep. 7.19) and their children Miranda and Peter are at least five years old.[1] Helen claims she grew up in a small house (7.19), and upon becoming "First Lady-elect", she seemed daunted by the luxury of the White House (7.19 & 7.20). In her senior year of high school, her rival Janet Spragens beat her for the last varsity spot on the swim team and got the school's heartthrob Don Vogel to take Janet to the prom instead of her, though Helen is "pretty sure Janet had to put out so Don would take her" (7.22). She likes to joke that her dad ran for dog-catcher, which Matt insists isn't true (6.21), while her husband often makes mother-in-law jokes (7.10). Like her husband, she is Roman Catholic, and attends church with her family (7.10 & 7.22). Helen is aware of her husband's payments to Anita Morales, a former Houston City Hall clerk who had a child by Matt's unreliable brother (7.14). Little is revealed in the series about Helen's employment background, education and personal history.
Helen holds liberal views on education funding, healthcare and the death penalty (6.13) and on felon voting (7.15). She is also opposed to ethanol subsidies, believing them to be waste of money (6.13). On several of these issues, she clashed with her husband and his campaign manager, Josh Lyman, over their willingness to take more politically safe stances. Helen was initially not on board with her husband's presidential run (6.09 & 6.10), an echo of how he persuaded her to support his first bid for City Council in 1993, saying "come on, it'll be an adventure" (7.22). She grew to support his campaign, making sure a loan was ready to keep his bid going if he lost the California Democratic Primary (6.18) and crucially, when her husband was willing to take the Vice Presidential slot on the Democratic ticket in exchange for propping up "lightweight" Vice President Bob Russell of Colorado for the presidential nomination, she urged her husband to instead fight on against Russell, convinced that Russell could never win the general election and that Russell's defeat would taint her husband by association in a 2010 run (6.21). However, she did begin to have doubts about her husband's candidacy at times, particularly when it put a strain on their family's finances and privacy (6.18 & 7.10). It was discovered by the press that Helen has a tattoo on her lower back and sometimes wears thong underwear (7.10).
As First Lady, she chose Donna Moss, the Santos campaign's Press Secretary, to be her Chief of Staff, feeling that Donna was capable and that the two of them had a rapport (7.19). It was also revealed that campaign media staffer Annabeth Schott would serve as the First Lady's Press Secretary (7.22). When discussing the nature of Mrs Santos' role as First Lady, Donna suggested that she might want to consider a "middle course", rather than simply be viewed as either an activist (as Abigail Bartlet was often viewed) or as a goodwill ambassador (7.19). White House decorator Gail Addison met with First Lady-elect Santos about redesigning the White House and fundraising for this, while Education Secretary Jim Kane helped her find schools for her children (7.20).
Full biography[]
Helen Moira Santos (nee Byrnes) was born in Dover, Delaware in June 1971 into a military family that understood sacrifice. Her father Jack Byrnes was a graduate of The Citadel Military College and a captain stationed at Dover Air Force Base, where the coffins of American servicemen who gave their lives abroad are brought home. Her mother Dina was a homemaker and devout Catholic, raising four children in their middle-class, all-American home.
In 1989 Helen moved away from home to study at the University of South Carolina Beaufort, near where her father had undergone ROTC and still had local ties. She spent four wonderful years earning her BA in Psychology, seeking to understand better what drives and troubles people, while also waitressing to support herself at a local bar on the Beaufort waterfront, The Low Tide Tavern. It was there one night in 1990 that Helen met a cocky airman from Houston, Texas by the name of Matt Santos, who was stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort with the Marine Aircraft Group 31 of 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing. She was initially sceptical and Matt was 10 years her senior, but he swept her off her feet and in 1991 they tied the knot. Many years later, Matt and Helen’s history in the Palmetto State and natural bond with it’s large veteran community helped Santos quietly win the support of the state’s Governor, Jim Frenley (D). This in turn helped Santos secure an unexpected second-place finish in the South Carolina Democratic Primary (behind southern son John Hoynes, but ahead of national frontrunner Robert Russell), and even very narrowly beat Arnold Vinick for conservative South Carolina’s electoral votes in the November 2006 election.
In 1993 Helen finished her degree, while Matt left the Marine Corps (while remaining in the Reserves). After he failed an FBI background check for a Pentagon job because his neighbours in his old Second Ward neighbourhood in Houston were afraid to talk to the authorities, upsetting their plans to settle near Washington, the Santoses instead moved to Houston. Matt threw himself into community projects and persuaded her to support his November 1993 bid for City Council (saying "come on, it'll be an adventure"), while Helen began working as an administrator in the Flores Neighborhood Library. In November 1995, Matt upset the city’s establishment in a coalition-building run for mayor, making Helen the “First Lady of Houston”, but she kept a low profile and kept working at the library throughout this time and later when her husband was elected to the US House of Representatives. Helen was aware of her husband's payments to Anita Morales, a former Houston City Hall clerk who had a child by Matt's unreliable brother Jorge. In 1997 after battles with IVF, Helen gave birth to her daughter Miranda Santos, followed by the younger Peter in 2001.
|
| PREDECESSOR Abigail Bartlet |
First Lady of the United States 2007 - present |
SUCCESSOR Incumbent |
Helen Santos is played by Teri Polo. She featured in the film "Meet the Parents".
- ↑ Without specifying which, in The Last Hurrah (7.19) Helen describes one of her children as "five years old" but is also thinking about "fifth grade", making one child approximately ten or eleven. Miranda's actress Ashlyn Sanchez was born in 1996 and would have been nine years old when The Last Hurrah was filmed, so maybe Peter is younger. In 2009, Peter's actor Joshua Cabrera played a "teenage" character in a movie, making it plausible he's of similar age to Sanchez.