President Gabriel Helman
Name Gabriel Sydney Helman
Position President
Rank President
Character Information
| Gender | Male | |
| Age | 45 | |
| Hometown | Bloomington, Indiana | |
| Political Party | Republican | |
| Occupational History | President of the United States (2017-Present) Governor of Indiana (2009-2017) Mayor of Bloomington, Indiana (2005-2009) Professor of History, Indiana University, Bloomington (1998-2009) High School History Teacher, Cambridge Public Schools (1992-1998) |
Physical Appearance
| Race | Black | |
| Height | 6'3" | |
| Weight | 205 Lbs | |
| Build | Muscular and Tall | |
| Hair Color | Black (Greying) | |
| Eye Color | Brown | |
| Appearance Description | This character is portrayed by Norm Lewis |
Family
| Spouse | Tara Helman | |
| Children | Brandon Helman (b. 1998) Sophia Helman (b. 2000) |
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| Parents | Sydney & Janice Helman | |
| Siblings | Keith Helman Patrick Helman Grace Helman |
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| Relationships With Family | Gabe has always been very close to his family and his relationship with them is of upmost importance. He is careful to eat dinner and spend weekends with his family daily, if he can, and he typically speaks to his parents and siblings on the phone about once a week on Sundays. |
Personality Traits
| Personality | Gabe is an expressive and gregarious person who generally speaks with strangers like they were old friends. He prefers to work quickly, to work efficiently, and to waste as little time as possible in his work. He is intelligent and tends to enjoy friendly debates on logical details. All and all, he is a man who loves his work and his family and tries very hard to be good. | |
| Hobbies and Interests | In his free time, Gabe likes to read and play board games or card games, but what he really loves is to spend time with friends and family. |
Personal Timeline
| Biography | Gabriel Sydney Helman was born to Sydney and Janice Helman in Evansville, Indiana on August 20, 1971. His father was a construction worker who prided himself on his work ethic and his self-sufficiency and his mother was a school teacher. The eldest of four siblings, Gabe was called upon from an early age to help lead his home and to establish order for his parents. He was a very kind and talkative child who loved to ask questions. At times his inquisitive nature was annoying for some adults, but he grew out of it into a well-mannered and curious young man. Gabe stayed near the top of his class academically while playing as quarterback on his High School football team. Socially, he was popular and well regarded by peers and adults and was expected to do great things, though he seemed to be interested in higher learning more than anything else. After graduating high school, he moved to Chicago to attend Columbia College. While at Columbia, Gabe studied History Education in hopes of one day getting his doctorate and becoming a University President. His parents had always preached to him about the power and importance of education and he had taken those lessons to heart. In his junior year in college, he met a girl named Tara Grey in a communications class he needed to take to complete his degree. He fell in love with her almost immediately, enraptured by her beauty, charm, and kindness. He took almost every opportunity he had to talk to her and they went on a few dates before he asked her to go steady with him. They dated throughout the rest of his junior and senior year and, since Tara was a Chicago native, they agreed to date long-distance as Gabe went off to Massachusetts for graduate studies at Harvard. Once at Harvard, Gabe studied at night and worked full time as a history teacher in Cambridge Public Schools. He was very busy with his work and his studies, but he and Tara made sure to speak on the phone at least once a day. When she was visiting him one week during his second year in Cambridge, he asked her to marry him and she said yes. A year later, she gave up a position as the executive assistant to the Mayor ofChicago to move in with him and start a family. He earned his doctorate in 1998, the same year Tara gave birth to their son, Brandon. After his graduation, the Helman family moved back to Indiana where Gabe was accepted as a professor of history at Indiana University, Bloomington. His previous six years in the classroom had given him the experience he needed to start teaching the right foot. Within a few months time, he quickly became his students favorite professor. They enjoyed his personality, insight, and his gregarious and understanding nature. Tara, on the other hand, started a job as the secretary to the Mayor of Bloomington, A job when she became familiar with the business of the city and made some powerful local friends. When Brandon was 2 years old, Power had their second child, a girl named Sophia. In 2003, 5 years after they moved back to Indiana, the longtime mayor of Bloomington announced retirement and indicated that he wouldn't be seeking re-election. Many people quickly threw their hats into the ring, but most of them were political Insiders who would no doubt fail to bring new insights and ideas to the city. One day, during dinner, Gabe was making a comment about what the city really needed in a leader, and Tara told him that he should run. At first, he dismissed the idea, but over the next few days, it started to grow on him. A week later, he threw his hat into the mayoral election ring and began to gather a small campaign staff. He had few political Ambitions and certainly didn't want to rise up in ranks, he felt that he could do something good for the city of Bloomington and so he was motivated to get the job. After going around interacting with people, he became a fast favorite among the locals and an early run off made him one of the two finalists for the position. He won the election with 53.2 percent of the vote share and, in 2005, he became Mayor of Bloomington, Indiana. While he held the position of Mayor, Gabe retained his job as a professor of history at the University. During his term of office, he worked diligently to revitalize the city by promoting Public Works, beautifying treats in public spaces, and encouraging a closer relationship with the University, the city’s biggest employer. He also spearheaded the building of an expanded Industrial Park which, over the course of a few years, brought thousands of jobs into the city. His love for education prompted him to become heavily involved in the local schools as well, and his presence and energy improved educational turnouts in the district. He became known as a Hands-On leader; the sort of man who doesn't really give orders, would like to see the reality on the ground and to be a practical part of the solution to every problem. Some people said he was improving the city but his personality alone oh, but he said that his only role was in bringing people together. In 2007, before he was to announce his re-election bid, Gabe was approached by the Republican leadership of the state of Indiana. They were looking for a candidate who could win the next gubernatorial election in 2008. Initially, Gabe was not friendly to the idea, preferring to stay in Bloomington and finish the job he started. The Republican Party of his state were, however, very insistent and seemed to corner him at every turn, trying to convince him that he should run for governor. Finally, after a long conversation with Tara, he realized that, deep down, he believed that running was the right thing to do. Late that year, he gave the party the go ahead and they helped him to launch his statewide campaign. Over the course of a few months, Gabe traveled what seems like every square mile of the state of Indiana, shook more hands than he could remember, and gave more speeches than he ever thought he could. His personal style was very popular with the people of Indiana and, even, some of the career politicians. The quiet resentment started to build at this point in his life for those career politicians, however. He saw, for the first time, how intransigent they were and how disinterested they seemed to be in the welfare of the people of his state. His plan was to do good work and then go home to live a simple life, but they planned to live off the public purse for the rest of their lives and to build never ending opportunities for their own family and friends oh, even at the expense of others. He vowed to never be like them. In November of 2008, Gabe was elected governor of Indiana and took up residence in the capital at the beginning of the next year. The move to Indianapolis was somewhat difficult for the family. Tara had continued to work for her husband in the mayoral office of Bloomington as his chief of staff, Served only as an advisor to him now that he was governor of the state. Brandon was 10 years old and in fifth grade Sophia was 8. It was difficult for them to leave their friends behind, but the trade-off is that their mother now had more time to stay home with them. Even after the first few weeks into his new job, Gabe found it difficult to spend so much time away from his family. He was more busy than ever and no longer had the time he once had to play with his children or to talk with his wife about non-work related things. Additionally, since he had had to give up his role at the University of Indiana, he was no longer in the classroom. He found this transition to be the hardest of all. During his governorship, Gabe directed his administration toward making the state more hospitable for Husiers who were willing to work hard. He put an emphasis on private ownership and took significant steps to help small and local businesses function. In agriculture, he initiated a program which bought farmland from wealthy landowners and sold it to families. He met with manufacturing companies across the state in order to encourage building and production in Indiana. He also tackled the adoption system personally, greatly reducing the cost to adopt a child in the state and significantly reducing the waiting time for adoptions. At the beginning of his second term, which he’d won by a large margin, Governor Helman was selected to sit on the Executive Committee of the National Governors Association and served as that organization’s Chairman in 2014. This role gave him a crash course introduction to the policies, characters, and power players in Washington D.C, a place he had very rarely visited before. From meeting several times with President Matt Santos in the White House to visiting the capitol to push forward his agenda with congressional leadership, Gabe’s dynamic personality and reputation for being clear, fair, and honest, earned him tons of fast friends in the Republican Party and the respect of many on the other side. When the time came for the next presidential election cycle to begin, he was asked if he was interested in running by the Chairman of the Republican National Committee during a lunch meeting in Indianapolis. He had heard the speculation by the media that he might run and he was aware of the buzz about him being a great candidate for the job, but he was honest that he had never envisioned himself as President and wasn’t particularly interested in the stresses of the job. A follow-up meeting with more Republican leadership indicated to him that many people were hoping he would run because they seemed to believe he was the right man. After deliberating with Tara, he formed an exploratory committee and announced his candidacy in 2015. After a relatively friendly primary, Gabe came out in the lead to win the Republican nomination, naming one of his rivals, Senator Jackie Frost of Arizona, as his running mate. The General Election was less friendly, but eventually they came out on top against Democratic nominee Senator Oliver Tillman of New York. President-elect Gabriel Helman resigned the governorship of Indiana and took up a residence in Washington to organize the transition from the Santos Administration to the Helman Administration while his family prepared for a move across the country. |
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| Academic/Professional Degree(s) | Columbia College - Bachelor of Science in History Education (1992) Harvard University - Doctor of Education (1998) |
Professional Record
| Electoral History | 2004 Bloomington Mayoral Election Gabriel Helman (R): 53.2% Matt Rogers (D):43.9% 2008 Indiana Gubernatorial Election Mayor Gabriel Helman (R): 50.5% State Representative Kenneth Grimes (D):49.5% 20012 Indiana Gubernatorial Election Governor Gabriel Helman (R): 57.1% Mayor Daniel Hawk (D): 42.9% 2016 Presidential Primary Election Governor Gabriel Helman (R): 773 Delegates Congressman Robert Martin (R): 322 Delegates Senator Jackie Frost (R): 120 Delegates Theo Fitzpatrick (R): 52 Delegates 2016 Presidential General Election Governor Gabriel Helman (R): 316 Electoral Votes Senator Oliver Tillman (D): 222 Electoral Votes |