"2162 Votes" is the 22nd and final episode of the sixth season of The West Wing.
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Plot
The Democratic National Convention has finally arrived and despite the best efforts of the White House, there is still no Presidential nominee.
Leo, as convention Chair, sits down with representatives from the Russell, Santos and Hoynes campaigns and in between the fighting tries to organize proceedings. The potential nominees will be allowed to speak before two ballots will take place. With no one prepared to give up ground, Leo resorts to rock, paper, scissors to decide the speaking order.
Meanwhile, the lives of the three astronauts in the International Space Station are still hanging in the balance as their oxygen supply dwindles. The White House is trying to deal with the aftermath of the leaked rumour of a military shuttle that can be used save them. With voices on all sides furious, President Bartlet demands that the leaker's name be on his desk by Friday and has given the task to Toby and Kate Harper.
Back at the Convention, Josh is trying to work out where he can find the crucial votes needed to win Santos the nomination. With the belief that Hoynes' campaign is over, Josh asks his former boss to transfer his votes to Santos after the first ballot. Hoynes says he'll think about it. Meanwhile, the Russell camp receives some bad news; Governor Eric Baker, their choice for Vice President after Santos's rejection wants to talk again.
With voting in the first ballot going on, Russell tries to convince Baker to stay on board—a Russell-Baker ticket is being touted by the media as a potential rival for the Vinick-Sullivan Republican ticket—but Baker remains unconvinced. After announcing he'll sleep on it, Russell tells Will and Donna that he believes Baker is going to enter the race at the second ballot and try to get elected from the floor.
As news spreads of Baker's plans, the Russell and Santos campaigns each begin to frantically tally the delegates' potential votes. Everyone is working out where the votes are going to be won and lost—with what seems like most of the Northeast's delegates defecting to Baker, as Baker makes his intentions known to the press.
Leo gets what is now the four candidates together and tells them the second ballot will end in deadlock. He says there will be another chance to address the convention before the third ballot, and urges them to make some calls to try to decide a nominee before things get too out of hand. As the votes are announced in the background, Santos, Russell, and Baker are all about even, while Hoynes has a mere 102 votes.
The next morning, at the White House, Kate and Toby meet the FBI agents in charge of interviewing people capable of leaking the shuttle information. The guilty party is facing ten years in a federal prison for releasing classified information.
At Russell Headquarters, Will concedes to Donna that with Baker picking up momentum, he isn't sure they can make it to the fourth ballot. As Donna says that maybe they should approach Josh again about the Vice-President job, Will says that at the moment, he'd settle for a Santos–Russell ticket. Meanwhile in the Santos camp, Josh says they need the teachers' unions to have a shot at winning the nomination. However, the teachers' unions are unabashedly opposed to Santos due to his campaign promise to end teacher tenure. Despite this, Josh still goes to see Ernie Gambelli, the head of the Unions. He says there can be no deal without a policy shift from Santos. When Josh returns, he is presented with a fax, detailing hospital admittance records for Baker's wife, who suffers from depression. Josh tells Santos to release the information; it makes Baker susceptible to blackmail otherwise. Santos refuses. The Russell campaign has also received the fax and a similar argument ensues between Will and Donna. Despite Donna's best efforts, Will says he will encourage the Vice President to release the information. With the information out in the open, Baker's hopes of the nomination disappear.
As day three of the Convention dawns, Leo urges Josh to get the Congressman to quit the race. Josh tells him Santos won't listen. Leo goes to see him himself, and tells him he must step aside in favor of either Russell or Baker, and he'll receive a chance to address the Convention. Meanwhile, with the President at the convention site, C.J. tells the President that perhaps it is time he chose his own successor.
When Santos delivers his speech, he announces to the arena that although he has been asked to step aside, he will not, telling the delegates it is their decision who receives the nomination. He goes on to denounce the use of Baker's wife's depression as a tool for influencing the nomination. Josh is astounded by the speech, since he believed Santos would finally quit. As Bartlet watches, clearly impressed with Santos, he tells Leo to find Josh.
Josh exits an elevator with a clearly irate Gambelli telling him another meeting with Santos is pointless as Santos won't change his position. Josh tells him he isn't going to see "his guy," and introduces him to the President. In the fourth ballot, as the tide finally turns, Gambelli is one of several delegates to declare his votes for Congressman Matthew Santos.
Josh goes to see Leo, who is surprised he isn't celebrating with the rest of the Santos campaign. Josh says they still need a Vice President. Baker declined the offer, due to not wanting to put his wife through any more scrutiny, and Russell is clearly out of the question. Leo asks if he wants help drawing up a shortlist, but Josh says they have their guy, they're just not sure he'll accept. Leo asks him if he wants the President's help, but Josh tells him he's already called the President, who said he'd "kick the guy's ass all over the schoolyard if it came to that". Leo asks him who it is. Josh simply says "You" and walks away leaving Leo shocked.
At the White House, Kate goes to see Toby. She tells him the FBI have a theory as to who the leak is, but he's not going to like it.
At the Convention, President Bartlet takes to the stage to announce the Democratic ticket, but before that he takes the opportunity to tell the delegates it has been his honor to serve them for the last eight years. The delegates playfully chant "four more years" to him, but its time to pass the torch on to Matthew Vicente Santos and Leo Thomas McGarry. Josh opens some beers and sits with Donna and Will. Watching on a television in his office, Senator Vinick turns to his staff and says "Okay, let's go win this thing."
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Notes
Although the convention was said to be in San Diego, exterior shots of the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California were used. Interior shots of the convention center were filmed in the Arrowhead Pond (now called Honda Center) in Anaheim, California.
When Santos is introduced, the speaker erroneously states that Santos graduated from the Air Force Academy. Santos actually graduated from the Naval Academy.
2162 is the number of votes required to nominate a candidate.
