Selina Meyer

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Selina Meyer was born Selina Catherine Eaton to mother Catherine Calvert Eaton and Gordon Dunn Eaton. She was raised in Maryland. In her childhood, she loved her father (whom she affectionately called Daddy), but resented her narcissistic mother. It is later revealed that Selina's father was an adulterer (who died from a heart attack while having sex with his secretary) and an unsuccessful businessman (who sold off Selina's beloved childhood horse Chicklet and had to be bailed out by his wife). Her father's secretary gave her a childhood snow-globe collection. Selina attended Smith College and Yale Law School. As a young woman, she married Andrew Meyer, a shady real estate developer, with whom she has a daughter, Catherine. She eventually divorces Andrew for repeatedly cheating on her and shows little (if any) maternal instinct towards her daughter. The show's opening sequence features generic political imagery. She was a United States senator from Maryland (where she was raised). Furthering her connection to the state of Maryland, the first season established Meyer as being a fan of the NFL's Baltimore Ravens; Meyer also hosted an event at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the home field of MLB's Baltimore Orioles. She announced her candidacy for the 2016 presidential election. Media outlets initially praised her and had high hopes for her becoming the president, with headlines such as "Magic Meyer" and "Is this Meyer's Moment?". Despite strong initial victories, she ultimately is defeated by primary challenger Stuart Hughes on Super Tuesday.

In Their Own Story

As the vice president, Meyer finds herself increasingly ignored by the president, and often demoted to trivial matters, or campaigns which she personally disliked such as combatting childhood obesity. Any and all programs that Meyer pursued which she genuinely believed in, such as the Clean Jobs Initiative or Senate filibuster reform, were often stymied at the president's insistence out of political expediency. Following the 2014 midterms, Meyer is given special responsibility for foreign affairs, entailing numerous overseas trips, as reward for her campaigning. When the sitting president decides that he will not seek a second term, his chief of staff, Ben Cafferty, encourages Meyer to run, which she ultimately does. She faces a primary challenge from war veteran and Governor of Minnesota Danny Chung, Secretary of Defense George Maddox, freshman Congressman Owen Pierce, and baseball coach Joe Thornhill. During the course of the primary season, President Hughes resigns abruptly to care for his ailing wife, and Meyer ascends to the presidency. Headlines question whether Meyer will be "the 8-month president", confirming that Hughes' term was near over, and Meyer is constitutionally eligible to serve two full terms as president. Though she chooses Senator Andrew Doyle to become her vice president, he declines to serve as her running mate for a full term as vice president. She offers the running mate position to Senator Tom James when she secures the party nomination, albeit after Danny Chung declines, George Maddox proves himself an inept candidate, and Meyer rules out the prospect of a female running mate. In the run-up to the 2016 election, Meyer attempted to enact a subsidized childcare program via the Families First Bill, also known as the "Mommy Meyer Bill" (much to her chagrin), funded by the scrapping of an obsolete nuclear defense system costing $50 billion. Due to Congressional opposition to potential job losses it would incur, an accidental pledge to increase spending on said system by $10 billion and public hostility to the program, the Meyer administration secretly lobbied to have the bill rejected in a House vote so that Meyer could win the upcoming election. However, a resultant Congressional inquiry found that not only did the Meyer administration secretly lobby against its own legislation, the Meyer campaign used confidential information obtained from a Medicaid leak in targeted campaign materials aimed at bereaved parents. Meyer is challenged in the general election by Arizona Senator Bill O'Brien. The election ends in an Electoral College tie, but with Meyer having won the popular vote. After an ambiguous result in Nevada, the Meyer campaign successfully lobbies for a recount. The recount backfires, with O'Brien not only keeping Nevada's electoral votes, but also overtaking Meyer's lead in the national popular vote due to previously uncounted military absentee votes. As Congress must then decide who will be the president, Meyer lobbies individual House Representatives for their votes, and even supports the campaign of White House staffer Jonah Ryan during a special congressional election in New Hampshire and promises to multiple people that she would appoint them as Secretary of State. After the House of Representatives fails to elect the president, Meyer agrees to be vice president for her running mate Tom James (having originally considered allowing O'Brien to win the House vote to allow her to run again at the next election). However, the Senate instead elects O'Brien's running mate Laura Montez as vice president, with Vice President Doyle as President of the Senate casting the deciding vote in favour of Montez to become Secretary of State after Meyer broke her promise to appoint him to the position. Due to the tied vote in the House and the House Speaker's refusal to hold another vote, the office of the president is left vacant, meaning that Vice President Montez immediately ascends to the presidency. As a result, James makes plans to return to the private sector while Meyer, now completely out of office, contemplates her future. It is mentioned throughout the final two seasons that she went to a psychiatric hospital that she referred to as a 'wellness spa' during the year after her loss in the House vote (although she later tells reporters that it was Catherine who went). Throughout the sixth season, which is set in 2018, Selina Meyer begins her presidential memoir with the help of her ghostwriter and former Press Secretary Mike McLintock. She also enlists several of her former aides to help run her namesake charity funded by her daughter, The Meyer Fund for Adult Literacy, AIDS, the Advancement of Global Democracy, Military Family Assistance, & Childhood Obesity. As part of her work with democracy, she supervises Georgian elections in which both sides offer to bribe her. Meyer believes that President Montez will nominate her to be a justice on the Supreme Court; instead, former president Hughes is nominated. She also begins working on trying to secure a place for her library; although Smith College initially accepts, the college turns her down due to controversies resulting from the firing of her painter because she had sex with Andrew Meyer; Meyer briefly considered constructing it on the site of her mother's house, even demolishing it in preparation (despite the property legally belonging to Catherine); and Yale's offer immediately became controversial as the proposed site was previously used to house the college's slaves. McLintock loses his diary detailing the Meyer presidency, leading to The Washington Post releasing bombshell stories surrounding controversies in her administration; this is quickly overshadowed by the revelation that it was the Meyer team that had participated in talks regarding the freedom of Tibet. This wave of support leads Meyer to conclude that she has a political future, and she declares her run for president in 2019.

Reader's Guide

Selina Meyer's journey across *Veep* is defined by specific turning points. In the first season, she is a powerless vice president, disregarded by most other important officials. In the second season, she begins to amass some power and influence. The third season sees her contemplate challenging the president for their unnamed party's nomination, but the issue becomes moot when he abruptly resigns and she becomes president. In the fourth season, she faces strong primary and general election challengers as she tries to win a presidential term in her own right. The election results in an Electoral College tie, setting the stage for the fifth season as the United States House of Representatives prepares to choose the president. She ultimately loses but spends the sixth and seventh seasons clawing her way back into the White House. Key moments include: her defeat by primary challenger Stuart Hughes on Super Tuesday; her ascension to the presidency after Hughes resigns; the Families First Bill ("Mommy Meyer Bill") scandal where her administration secretly lobbied against its own legislation and used confidential information from a Medicaid leak; the Electoral College tie with Arizona Senator Bill O'Brien; the recount backfiring when O'Brien overtook Meyer's lead in the national popular vote due to previously uncounted military absentee votes; the House failing to elect a president, leading to Laura Montez ascending to the presidency; and her eventual declaration of a run for president in 2019 after a wave of support following the Tibet revelation.

Did You Know?

• Louis-Dreyfus earned a record-breaking six consecutive Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series awards.

From Senator to the Oval Office: A Political Odyssey

Selina Meyer's political journey in Veep traces an arc from state legislator to the highest office in the land. Originally a United States senator from Maryland, she launched a 2012 presidential bid that generated enormous media enthusiasm, with headlines coining phrases like "Magic Meyer." Yet her campaign collapsed on Super Tuesday when primary rival Stuart Hughes defeated her, and she was subsequently selected as his running mate. Her first season as vice president is defined by near-total powerlessness; she is sidelined, humiliated, and relegated to causes she despises, while her own policy priorities like the Clean Jobs Initiative and filibuster reform are repeatedly blocked. By the second season she begins accumulating genuine influence, and by the third, she is weighing a primary challenge against the president. That contest becomes irrelevant when Hughes abruptly resigns to care for his ailing wife, propelling Meyer into the White House. The fourth season sees her contest a full presidential term against a field of challengers, only to end in an Electoral College deadlock that sends the decision to the House of Representatives. After losing that contest, she spends the final two seasons fighting her way back to power.

A Record-Shattering Award Legacy

Julia Louis-Dreyfus's portrayal of Selina Meyer produced one of the most extraordinary award runs in television history. She earned a record-breaking six consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, a streak no other performer has matched. Her seven overall Emmy nominations in that category also set a new benchmark. Beyond the acting trophies, the role pushed her past Lucille Ball's long-standing record for the most Emmy nominations by an actress in a regular comedy cast, reaching her fourteenth such nomination. She also became the first comedy actress to win an Emmy for her third distinct regular-cast role, a milestone that underscored the sheer range of her career. On the international stage, Louis-Dreyfus received five Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress in a Television Series Musical or Comedy. These accolades cemented Veep as not merely a hit comedy but a landmark in the recognition of female-led television writing and performance.

A Complicated Personal History

Before the political spotlight, Selina Catherine Eaton grew up in Palm Springs, Florida, the daughter of Catherine Calvert Eaton and Gordon Dunn Eaton. She adored her father, whom she called Daddy, yet harbored deep resentment toward her narcissistic mother. The family's veneer of normalcy cracked as she learned her father was a chronic adulterer who died of a heart attack during an affair with his secretary, and a failed businessman who sold her beloved childhood horse, Chicklet, and had to be bailed out by his wife. Paradoxically, it was that same secretary—childless due to their affairs and a string of coerced abortions—who behaved most like a parent, gifting Selina a snow-globe collection as a surrogate child. The show also hints that a family friend, Uncle George, may be her biological father. Selina went on to attend Smith College and Yale Law School. As a young woman she married Andrew Meyer, a shady real estate developer, and they had a daughter, Catherine. She eventually left him over repeated infidelity and displayed little maternal warmth toward her child.

Scandal, Strategy, and the 2016 Election

Meyer's tenure as president in her own right is marked by a cascade of political missteps and ethical controversies. During the 2016 campaign, she championed the Families First Bill—mockingly dubbed the "Mommy Meyer Bill"—which would have funded subsidized childcare by scrapping a $50 billion obsolete nuclear defense system. Facing Congressional opposition over job losses, an accidental pledge to increase that system's spending by $10 billion, and public hostility, her administration secretly lobbied to have the bill defeated in a House vote so she could win the election. A subsequent Congressional inquiry revealed not only that the White House had lobbied against its own legislation but that the campaign had exploited confidential information from a Medicaid leak in targeted materials aimed at bereaved parents. The election itself ended in an Electoral College tie, forcing the House of Representatives to select the president. Her vice-presidential search was equally fraught: Senator Andrew Doyle declined the full-term slot, Danny Chung turned it down, George Maddox proved inept, and Meyer ruled out a female running mate before settling on Senator Tom James.