There has been some talk recently about what happens if a Member of Congress dies, as only a few weeks ago, on November 28, Virginia representative Donald McEachin passed away. Although these occurrences may seem rare, in 2022 alone, 4 members of congress, all of them members of the House of Representatives, have passed away. That is almost 1% of the House in one year.

In this episode, the staff is working on passing a commerce bill. As part of this process, Mandy and Toby sit down with two congressmen and Mr. Willis (of Ohio) to try and get them to approve the bill. Mr. Willis is at the meeting because he has assumed his late wife’s office as a member of Congress, and he later, after being convinced by Toby, votes in favor of the bill.

This, however, is unrealistic, as when a Congressperson dies, their Spouse does not simply take their place. Instead, the Governor of the state that the Congressperson was representing holds a special election in the former representative’s district to elect a new representative. For the Senate, a governor can also fill vacancies until there a special election can be held, if empowered to do so by the state legislature. Between when a Congressperson dies and a new one is elected, the Congressperson’s office and staff continue to work (overseen by the Clerk of the house/senate) but are not able to perform legislative tasks, such as voting on a bill, as Mr. Willis did.

It is interesting that the show’s writer Aaron Sorkin decided to take this creative liberty, allowing the husband of a dead member of the House of Representatives to legislate, especially knowing that there were many people working as advisors to the series writing had worked in the White House - and knew the rules of congress. It’s possible that Sorkin simply was more comfortable with taking artistic liberties such as this before the show was a massive success, as this episode is only 6th in the series.

Either way, it is important that we try to look into the what-ifs of the world, and the possibilities of what could happen rather than choosing to turn a blind eye to possible issues. Especially now, when so much information is right at our fingertips, and we can easily find answers. That’s why shows like The West Wing are so great, because they expose us to what-ifs, or even situations that happen often, that we simply don’t take the time to learn about. This helps inform people about these things and encourages them to do more research and learn about how our world works. It is especially important for teens, with so much noise in day-to-day life and technology like other generations have never had before drowning out the truth about processes that go on around us and in our governments, to inform themselves about how our world works.