Professional Backgound
- He attended Southern Methodist University [2.1] and speaks fluent French [1.2].
- He made his money in the oil industry [2.17]. As Vice President (and Presidential hopeful), Hoynes had some private polling done that showed a significant number of people are concerned about his ties to big oil. To help counter this he offered to publicly admonish Philip Sluman of the Petroleum Producers of America [2.17].
- Hoynes was in the U.S. Senate for eight years, during which time he voted against the ethanol tax credit even while campaigning in the presidential primaries in Iowa [1.16].
- He was one of only 30 federal elected officials to put his name on Social Security reform legislation [2.1].
- Hoynes entered the 1998 primary season as the prohibitive favorite, with $58 million in his war chest and a 48 point lead [2.1]. After Bartlet won the nomination, Hoynes made Bartlet beg him to join the ticket, which Bartlet thinks weakened him right out of the gate [1.8].
- Hoynes was added to the Bartlet ticket in order to deliver the South [1.8]. (Incidentally, Bartlet did not carry Texas, Hoynes's home state [1.2].)
- Josh Lyman worked for Hoynes before joining the Bartlet campaign. Hoynes wonders if he would be sitting in the Oval Office if he had followed Josh's advice [1.22]. After Bartlet's re-election, Hoynes told Josh he would've been great at Leo's job [4.9].
- He was one of only 14 people who knew about the president's MS before the shooting [2.1]; he was told before he agreed to be vice president [2.21]. Despite knowing of the president's illness, Hoynes didn't tell Bartlet of his alcoholism until they were gearing up for re-election, because he assumed the president already knew [3.17].
- Though he agrees that the Second Amendment is archaic, Hoynes does not favor gun control [3.5].
- The vice president's secretary's name is Janeane [1.4].
- In late April, 2003, John Hoynes resigned the Vice Presidency when it was clear his former mistress, Helen Baldwin, was planning to write a tell-all book that would include classified information he'd told her. Such sharing of classified information is a felony [4.21].
- After resigning, Hoynes joined a law firm [5.15].
- In early 2004, Hoynes received a $5 million advance for a tell-all book meant to rehabilitate his image so he can run for President against Russell [5.15].