Elizabeth McCord
Madam Secretary character
Téa Leoni as Elizabeth McCord
First appearance"Pilot"
Last appearance"Leaving the Station"
Created byBarbara Hall
Portrayed byTéa Leoni (2014–19)
In-universe information
Full nameElizabeth Adams McCord
NicknameBess, Lizzie
GenderFemale
Title
Occupation
  • Politician
  • Professor (former)
  • CIA Analyst (former)
AffiliationUnited States Department of State
FamilyBenjamin Adams (father)
Suzanne Adams (mother)
Dr. Will Adams (brother)
SpouseHenry McCord
ChildrenStephanie "Stevie" McCord
Allison McCord
Jason McCord
RelativesDimitri Petrov (son-in-law)
Sophie Adams (sister-in-law)
Annie Adams (niece)
Patrick McCord (father-in-law)
Mrs. McCord (mother-in-law)
Erin McCord (sister-in-law)
Shane McCord (brother-in-law)
Sarah McCord (niece)
Maureen McCord-Ryan (sister-in-law)
Tom Ryan (brother-in-law)
John Ryan (nephew)
Kenzie Ryan (niece)
Kelly Ryan (niece)
NationalityAmerican

Elizabeth "Bess" Adams McCord is a fictional character and the protagonist of the CBS political drama series Madam Secretary. She is portrayed by Téa Leoni. McCord serves as the United States Secretary of State over the course of the series; the sixth and final season covers her first year as the first female president of the United States.

Biography

Born in Virginia, Elizabeth attended Houghton Hall Boarding School, where she was co-captain of the debate team alongside Bahrainian Crown Prince Yousif Obaid (Aasif Mandvi).[1] She attended the University of Virginia studying mathematics, where one of her professors was future Chief Justice of the United States Frawley (Morgan Freeman).[2] It was also where she met her future husband.[3] Immediately prior to her appointment as Secretary of State, Elizabeth held a professorship at the University of Virginia and is depicted as holding a doctorate.

Elizabeth's parents were killed in a car accident when she was young, orphaning her and her brother, Dr. Will Adams (Eric Stoltz).

In 1990, Elizabeth married Henry McCord (Tim Daly). They have three children- Stephanie "Stevie" (Wallis Currie-Wood), Alison (Kathrine Herzer) and Jason (Evan Roe).

Elizabeth speaks fluent French, German, Arabic, Persian (Farsi), and "a year of high school Spanish".[4]

Career

Elizabeth worked as a CIA analyst for 20 years; she resigned from her position over an ethical dilemma just as she was being considered for promotion to Station Chief in Baghdad.[5] She then taught at the University of Virginia as a political science professor.

After the death of Vincent Marsh (Brian Stokes Mitchell) in a suspicious plane crash, President Conrad Dalton (Keith Carradine)- her former mentor at the CIA- personally asked her to serve in his cabinet as Secretary of State. Not a natural politician, Elizabeth frequently clashed with White House Chief of Staff Russell Jackson (Željko Ivanek).[4] As secretary of state, much of her first year in office was spent investigating her predecessor's death.

In "Tamerlane", Elizabeth is in the home of Iranian Foreign Minister Zahed Javani (Usman Ally) when a coup d'état orchestrated by the late Secretary of State Marsh, CIA Director Andrew Munsey, and CIA analyst Juliet Humphrey is attempted; during the attack, both Minister Javani and Elizabeth's personal bodyguard, DSS Agent Fred Cole, are killed.[6] In the aftermath, Elizabeth is left with PTSD and begins seeing Russell Jackson's personal therapist.[7]

In "The Show Must Go On", during a communications blackout aboard Air Force One with both the president and the Speaker of the House on board, and with the vice president in surgery and president pro tempore of the Senate found to be incompetent after a series of mini-strokes, Elizabeth is sworn in as acting president for several hours.[2]

In "You Say You Want a Revolution", Elizabeth and her Cuban counterpart are instrumental in the restoration of Cuba–United States relations, including the opening of the Cuban embassy in Washington and the U.S. embassy in Havana, as well as the repeal of the longstanding embargo against Cuba. This is viewed as a significant milestone for the Dalton administration.[8]

In "Vartius", due to the failing health and impending resignation of Vice President Mark Delgado (Alex Fernandez), President Dalton offers the vice presidency to McCord.[9] She initially accepts, but when President Dalton loses his party's primary election, she advises him to instead run as an independent candidate and to ask popular Pennsylvania Senator Teresa Hurst to be his running mate instead, as winning Pennsylvania would increase his chances of ensuring neither major party's candidate would achieve a majority in the Electoral College. On election night, Dalton wins several key states, including Pennsylvania, guaranteeing that neither major-party candidate secures a majority. Thanks to the efforts of Russell Jackson, Dalton is re-elected by the House of Representatives in a contingent election.

In Season 4, McCord is considered a favorite to run for president, even over Vice President Hurst. Russell Jackson tells her that President Dalton would rather leave the presidency to her than to Hurst, who has her own ambitions.

In Season 5, McCord offers her resignation to President Dalton, which he accepts. In "Better Angels", Elizabeth holds a public gathering at her family farm, during which she officially announces her candidacy for the presidency of the United States.

In "Hail to the Chief"- the first episode of Season 6- it is revealed that McCord won her bid to become the nation's first female president. Flashbacks in the episode show a variety of key moments in McCord's campaign: her opponents were Republican Senator Beauregard Miller Guy Boyd, a populist fearmonger who picked up the nationalistic rhetoric started by disgraced Kentucky Senator Owen Callister (Will Chase). In the initial stretch of the campaign, McCord remained firmly in third position. Against the advice of her campaign manager Mike B, McCord decides to underscore her message of unity and opposition to entrenched partisanship by offering the vice presidency to her old rival, Senator Carlos Morejon (José Zúñiga). Although Morejon is reluctant at first to abandon the Republican Party, McCord promises to give him a chance to argue his own opinion on every policy she enacts. At the end of the episode, McCord and Morejon appear together in a flashback at their first joint campaign rally.

Season 6 also opens with accusations that the McCord campaign conspired with Iran to win the election. The second episode, "The Strike Zone", features former campaign manager turned Senior Counselor to the President Mike B. testifying in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee. The following episodes portray two of McCord's staffers, Blake Moran and Daisy Grant, also testifying to the Senate Intelligence Committee. Henry and Stephanie McCord are also eventually forced to testify. In the series' semi-finale, Elizabeth herself testifies against the counsel of multiple advisors; she is later acquitted.

Staff

With the exception of her personal assistant Blake Moran (Erich Bergen) and her new policy advisor Kat Sandoval (Sara Ramirez), Elizabeth inherited her entire senior staff from her predecessor, Vincent Marsh.

Her personal staff at the State Department consists of:

In "Blame Canada", Elizabeth fires Allen Bollings (John Finn), the chief negotiator responsible for peace talks with Iran, for threatening military action rather than the trade ban relaxations she authorized, and then lying about it.[10]

In "Whisper of the Ax", Elizabeth recruits veteran political operative Michael "Mike B." Barnow (Kevin Rahm) as a special advisor to help her strategize; Mike B. is referred to as her "personal hatchet man".[11][12]

In "The Essentials", Nadine Tolliver retires from the State Department upon learning that she's about to become a grandmother in order to spend more time with her family in San Francisco.[13] Following her departure, Elizabeth names Jay her new Chief of Staff.[14]

Influences

The character of Elizabeth McCord is partially inspired by both Madeleine Albright and Hillary Clinton, both of whom made guest appearances as themselves in the show.[15] McCord has been the subject of analysis in the context of media representation of female political figures.[16][17]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Chains of Command". Madam Secretary. Season 1. Episode 13. January 11, 2015.
  2. 1 2 "The Show Must Go On". Madam Secretary. Season 2. Episode 1. October 4, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Invasive Species". Madam Secretary. Season 2. Episode 13. January 31, 2016.
  4. 1 2 "Pilot". Madam Secretary. Season 1. Episode 1. September 21, 2014.
  5. ↑ "There But For the Grace of God". Madam Secretary. Season 1. Episode 22. May 3, 2015.
  6. ↑ "Tamerlane". Madam Secretary. Season 1. Episode 16. March 15, 2015.
  7. ↑ "Face the Nation". Madam Secretary. Season 1. Episode 17. March 22, 2015.
  8. ↑ "You Say You Want a Revolution". Madam Secretary. Season 2. Episode 7. November 15, 2015.
  9. ↑ "Vartius". Madam Secretary. Season 2. Episode 23. May 8, 2016.
  10. ↑ "Blame Canada". Madam Secretary. Season 1. Episode 5. October 19, 2014.
  11. ↑ "Whisper of the Ax". Madam Secretary. Season 1. Episode 14. March 1, 2015.
  12. ↑ "Lights Out". Madam Secretary. Season 2. Episode 8. November 22, 2015.
  13. ↑ "The Essentials". Madam Secretary. Season 4. Episode 3. October 22, 2017.
  14. ↑ "Shutdown". Madam Secretary. Season 4. Episode 4. October 29, 2017.
  15. ↑ Betty Kaklamanidou; Margaret Tally (4 October 2016). Politics and Politicians in Contemporary US Television: Washington as Fiction. Taylor & Francis. pp. 131–. ISBN 978-1-317-07849-4.
  16. ↑ Gibbs, Jessica F. (2017-01-01). "Madam Secretary: A Case Study in the Media Representation of Female Foreign Policy Makers". Passport: The Newsletter of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations Review. 47 (3): 24–28. ISSN 1949-9760.
  17. ↑ Schwind, Katie (2017-01-01). "Politics, Feminism, and Popular Television: Madam Secretary as a Politician, Wife, and Mother". Electronic Theses and Dissertations.
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