| “ | Without wishing to sound boastful, I'm the Vice President's secret weapon. | ” |
– Dan
| ||
Dan Egan is the an anchor for CBS News. He is the former Senior Advisor under President Meyer and formerly Meyer's Deputy Director of Communications when she served as Vice President. Dan has also been a lobbyist, the campaign manager for Meyer's 2016 presidential campaign, and a CNN TV personality.
Dan is a highly ambitious up-and-comer in DC who takes pride in his social networking skills, and thinks of himself as the "secret weapon" on the VP team, and is incredibly confident in his personal skills. He is portrayed by Reid Scott.
Description
The most recent addition to the administration, Dan describes himself as, "a dynamic team player who loves a challenge." He enjoys working with Mike and says, "getting to study him at close quarters is a revelation," adding, "he is literally SO easy to learn from." At the moment his core focus is new media but he imagines the role "will very rapidly expand beyond that narrow remit to encompass many other new and exciting horizons." He believes his extensive contacts and supreme networking skills will pay dividends in the near future.
Early Life
According to Jonah, Dan is from upstate New York. His mother is catholic. He also says that he banged his brothers fiancé. From what he said to Selena when she asked him to be Campaign Manager, he got dared by his friends when he was a child to kill a stray dog, and he did. He kept it as one of his inmost secrets.
VP's Deputy Director of Communications (2013 - 2015)
In the first season, Dan is the Director of Communications for Nevada Senator Barbara Hallowes. After Selina makes an inappropriate joke, Dan leaks a story about Hallowes and quits immediately. Selina, impressed, hires him. Dan continues to try to get closer to Selina. In one episode, he manages to replace Gary, only to be shooed away by Selina. In The Choice, he has a breakdown and snaps at Selina.
When Selina announces her presidential campaign, Dan competes with Amy for the job of Selina's campaign manager. Unbeknownst to him Selina is actually looking to hire Bill Erickson, however after he insults her and advises her to fire her entire team Selina hires Dan who happens to wander in on her meeting.
Campaign Manager & Lobbying (2015 - 2016)
Elated with the news that he is her campaign manager Dan reveals that he once killed a dog to impress some older boys and also has a penchant for older women.
Dan and Selina.
One of Dan's first acts as campaign manager is hiring Ray to be Selina's personal trainer and lover in Detroit. However the plan backfires on Selina's trip to London in Special Relationship when Ray's influence over Selina comes into question by the press along with his hatred of overweight people. Dan has a nervous breakdown and is hospitalized, replaced by Amy as campaign manager. He returns to work for Selina in Debate.
Dan is fired from the Meyer staff in Data after the team need someone to scapegoat after they discover that a data breach was used to target the parents of deceased children. He then finds work with Sidney Purcell at his lobbying firm, using his connections to the Meyer administration. In Storms and Pancakes he helps get Amy a job working with him after she has a nervous breakdown and quits as campaign manager.
He spends the night of the election as a political commentator for CNN.
Return to the West Wing (2016 - 2017)
Dan is fired from his lobbyist job and is offered a position by Amy, heading up the recount in Nevada in the hopes of triggering a recount which might favour Selina. While there he flirts with Amy, but drops her and sleeps with her sister after mistakingly believing that she works for CBS and would be willing to get him a job there. After completing his job with the recount Dan returns to the white house, temporarily working for Tom James as a bagman. After noticing that James is subtly dropping the names of lobbyists into interviews, Dan mistakingly tries to make himself a part of James' plan only to be rebuffed and threatened with a demotion. Desperate to stop working for James he later joins Jonah Ryan's congressional run as his campaign manager.
Despite the fact that Jonah is abrasive and a nightmare to work with him he eventually comes to empathize with him after the two are yelled at by Selina and hits on the winning strategy of bashing Selina in order to gain popularity. Ultimately he is able to get Jonah elected after Jonah shoots himself in the foot and his opponent makes an anti-gun statement causing the NRA to campaign for Jonah.
CBS Anchor (2017 - Present)
After Selina Meyer loses both the house and the senate vote Dan goes to work for CNN again, acting as a political commentator for Laura Montez's inauguration. He is offered a night commentator job for CNN but decides to accept an invitation from CBS instead.
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