Claire Underwood

**Claire Hale Underwood** is a Groupy McGroupface politician, currently serving as a Senator and Democratic Party Senate Whip. She unsuccessfully ran for President in the 2018/19 Groupy McGroupface Presidential Elections, during which she led a merciless and ruthless campaign against her opponents. Prior to this, she had served as First Lady of Groupy McGroupface, which was directly as a result of her husband's rise to the Presidency. During her husband's tenure as President, she briefly served as Ambassador to the United Group Chats. Before entering the spotlight, she was the Chief Executive Officer of Clean Water Initiative; a non-profit organisation.

## Biography

Claire Hale Underwood grew up in Texas as an only child. She was very close to her father; her mother even stating: "You got away with murder". This paternal closeness resulted in a strained relationship with her mother, Elizabeth Hale. As Claire moved from childhood to adolescence this strain turned to estrangement. Claire Underwood's mother always told her to frown less and smile more but never considered her personal feelings were in the way of her happiness; she just couldn't smile from the inside out.

At 22 years old, Claire married up-and-coming politician Francis Underwood. Their marriage was somewhat of a calculated one, due to their thirst for power. Around the time her husband was elected to Congress, Claire assumed the position of CEO of the Clean Water Initiative; a charity non-profit organisation intended on bringing clean, drinkable water across developing, impoverished countries. During her tenure, she proved to be just as ruthless and pragmatic as her husband. The main reason for her working at the firm was simply to make herself and her husband seem like caring individual in preparation for Frank's future bid for the Presidency.

In the 2016/17 Groupy McGroupface Presidential Elections, her husband was elected to the Presidency. Following this, Claire assumed the role of First Lady of Groupy McGroupface. Several months into her husband's tenure as President, she was appointed to the role of Groupy McGroupface Ambassador to the United Group Chats. Her appointment to this position was extremely controversial, with many accusing the President of nepotism. As a result of such controversy, Claire's tenure in this role was extremely short-lived and she resigned after only two months in the role.

Throughout the Underwood Presidency, Claire was a part of her husband's inner circle. As a result, she played a key role in a number of important actions undertaken by the Administration. The most significant was, arguably, the events relating to Sangue. After the Tiscali Mafia has targeted a government institution created by her husband, Claire was a large proponent for responding with force. When Senior Advisor Mycroft Holmes stated his objections to her viewpoint, Claire personally asked him for his resignation. As a consequence, she alone was responsible for her husband losing one of his senior aides.

In preparation for the 2018/19 Groupy McGroupface Presidential Elections, Claire began mulling over a bid for the Presidency. She then started exploring a run after meeting with several potential campaign staffers, a group which included White House Senior Advisor Mark Usher. Around this period of time, Claire revealed that she, like her husband, was aware of the audience that watch the role-plays and always had been. This made her one of only a handful of characters to understand that all of what they did was continuously watched by an audience.

In her approach to the campaign, Claire was well and truly merciless. Fearing that Governor and popular Democratic Party Presidential Candidate Peter Russo was an obstacle stopping her from gaining the party's nomination, she concocted a plan that would completely destroy both his career and life. The plan was to force Russo, a recovering alcoholic, to become drunk in a place whereupon the media would be able to see him, whereupon his campaign would suffer greatly. Claire, with the help of her husband, was successful in carrying out this plan, and destroyed almost all of Russo's credibility.

Following this, Frank Underwood was satisfied that Claire could easily win the nomination from this point on. Claire, on the other hand, was not. She believed that killing Peter Russo, and staging it as a suicide, was essential to completing the plan. Whilst her husband did not wish to go through with this, she insisted that it must be done. In addition to this, she also called for the murder of journalist Tom Hammerschmidt, who was in the middle of authoring an article considered detrimental to Frank's legacy. Coerced by his wife, Frank agreed to organise both murders.

In the aftermath of Russo's death, Claire announced her decision to run for the Democratic Party Presidential Nomination. In her announcement speech, she claimed that Russo's death had left a large hole in the party, consequently causing her to step up and run for office in order to fill this void.

Throughout the primary, she campaigned vigorously on a platform that supported women's rights, as well as rights for other minorities. Whilst some were critical of her campaign due to her ties to her husband's Presidency, she hit back by referring to such attacks as 'misogynistic'. Underwood often claimed that people were against her candidacy not because of the issues, but simply because she was a woman. She would often criticise her fellow candidates Governor Jed Bartlet and Secretary Al Gore, and called for an end to the 'reign of the middle-aged white man'.

Underwood ended up severely underperforming in the Democratic Party Presidential Primary, and ultimately received only 3% of the overall votes cast. Following this, she endorsed eventual Democratic Party Presidential Nominee Jed Bartlet and took the decision to run for the Senate instead. She was ultimately successful in her bid for this Senate seat, and upon her election, she was appointed as Democratic Party Senate Whip. With her husband now working in the private sector following the end of his Presidency, the group chat's infamous power couple now had immense influence in both the public and private sectors.

## Role-Plays Featured In

* 2016/17 Groupy McGroupface Presidential Elections (Supporting Character)
* The Senate (RP) (Supporting Character)
* 2017/18 Groupy McGroupface Presidential Elections (Supporting Character)
* Sangue (Supporting Character)
* Celestial One (Supporting Character)
* The Senate II (Supporting Character)
* 2018/19 Groupy McGroupface Presidential Elections (Supporting Character)
* Alex's Monthly Round-Up (Guest in 3 Episodes)