Madam Secretary season 5: Who could be Elizabeth McCord’s new rival?

Going into Madam Secretary season 5, it feels like we’ve got a sense now as to what the future could hold for Elizabeth McCord. She has made the decision now to run for President, and she feels as though this could be the best way to go about her goal of making sure the world stays reasonably safe.

Yet, there’s another question that comes along with this: How fast do the producers want to tell this story?

We’ve already heard various quotes over time that they don’t want to rush into anything, and we sincerely doubt that they will. If the show wants to tell a story in line with the 2020 Presidential election, campaign season won’t quite begin until next year. (It’a crazy that election season almost tends to begin now 18 months before people cast their ballots, but it happens.)

Thanks to a new issue of TV Guide, we do have a reasonably good sense as this point as to who Elizabeth could eventually be up against — at least in a potential primary down the road: Senator Owen Peterson, a character played by Will Chase. We’re not sure that this is someone who can be viewed as an outright enemy, mostly because of the fact that it’s hard to really view anyone with similar beliefs such a way; yet, this could be someone Bess has to go through if she does want to make her political dream into somewhat of a reality.

Following primary season, things are a little more likely to be nasty and that is something else that Bess is going to have to watch out for — but, we don’t exactly think at the moment that this is something the show needs to really be worried about. If you make the story of the election a slow burn, that’s fine — but there’s no sense getting it really going strong prior to the midterms. (It would be season 7 before the next election if the show operates in real time.

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How do you think Madam Secretary should take on the story of Elizabeth and her political aspirations? Share in the comments!

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