Arnold Vinick is a fictional character on the television series The West Wing played by Alan Alda. Vinick is a Republican member of the United States Senate from California, a political moderate with a maverick streak and a direct manner. Vinick seems to be loosely based on Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Senators John McCain and Lincoln Chafee although, unlike McCain, Vinick is pro-choice. Vinick has also been described as a deficit hawk, like McCain.

Senator Vinick was once offered the post of Ambassador to the United Nations by President Josiah Bartlet's deputy chief of staff, Josh Lyman, but declined, as he intended to run for President himself. Lyman and former White House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry were concerned that Vinick, as an articulate and appealing candidate, offered the Republicans a real chance to win back the White House after Democrat Bartlet's two terms. However, both wondered if he was too centrist to win the Republican nomination.

Vinick opposes federal funding for ethanol as an alcohol fuel, considering it a political boondoggle. He says, half-seriously, that he trusts no one who doesn't shine his own shoes. Vinick is a widower and defeated the Reverend Don Butler and former Speaker of the House and Acting President Glen Allen Walken for the Republican nomination in the 2006 presidential election. Shortly after winning the nomination, Senator Vinick met with President Bartlet to discuss a deal to raise both the federal debt ceiling and the national minimum wage.

After the Reverend Butler declined to be his running mate in the 2006 election, due to Butler's strong pro-life views, Vinick, who felt he needed a staunch conservative to balance the ticket, selected Governor Ray Sullivan of West Virginia.

Vinick may be an atheist or an agnostic or other religious skeptic. Though this has been hinted it in his public statements, he has not actually made this public knowledge. Vinick may also be a book collector, having recieved a 17th century King James Bible from his late wife. Her untimely death, and the harsh requirements of Old Testament law which he discovered when he read the Bible in depth, made him question his own religious beliefs.

In the seventh season of the show, Senator Vinick and Governor Sullivan will be running against Representative Matt Santos of Texas, the Democratic Party's presidential nominee, and his running mate, former White House Chief of Staff and Secretary of Labor Leo McGarry of Illinois.

See also

• The West Wing
• Characters on The West Wing
• List of The West Wing episodes