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Christina Gallagher is the former executive assistant to Representative Peter Russo (D-PA) and President Garrett Walker, as well as Russo's former love interest.
Biography
Peter Russo's secretary and girlfriend
An attractive woman in her late twenties, Christina Gallagher was hired by Representative Peter Russo sometime in 2012 to be his executive assistant. They soon began a relationship and within months she moved into his D.C. apartment. Despite hiding their office romance, the relationship didn't go unnoticed by the House Majority Whip Frank Underwood's Chief of Staff Doug Stamper.
As their private and professional lives overlapped, the two functioned in tandem at work when dealing with Russo's constituency and financial donors from the Pennsylvania's 1st congressional district. Well clued into the nature and tone of his meetings, Christina did her part when needed to get her boss/boyfriend out of a jam. In early January 2013 when Henry Chapman whose company donated $50,000 to Russo's congressional campaign came to berate the congressman about not delivering on the promise of changing the zoning laws after he got elected to the House, Christina placed an urgent call saying the President-elect Garrett Walker wants to speak thus providing Russo with an opening to act out a conversation with the President that increased his credibility in Chapman's eyes.
Seemingly emotionally fragile and delicate, Christina occasionally displayed insecurity about the level of Peter's commitment as she coaxed him into showing her more affection, reasoning that "it's been six months, it's not an office fling anymore" and seeking to be reassured he's "not going to toss her aside for some slut straight out of Vassar". Though not aware of the gory details of Russo's various vices, Christina is a first hand witness of the effects of his alcoholism and cocaine intake that were only exacerbated by Underwood's and Stamper's manipulation of Russo after they got him out of his January 2013 DUI arrest with prostitute Rachel Posner. For that particular incident Christina only knows about the DUI part. When Peter got a 1am phone call in the early morning hours of 24 January 2013 as he's getting ready to go to bed and as a result ran out of the house, giving her an unconvincing explanation that he has to discuss policy with a colleague from Congress, Christina was visibly perturbed. Not knowing where he went, she was even more disturbed when he returned day and a half later, showing up to work visibly high and hungover.
Putting her concerns over Russo's troubled behaviour aside for the time being, by March 2013 she was still intent on developing their relationship. Wanting to become a real couple that doesn't hide due to the boss-staffer relation, she felt it would be good idea for her to work somewhere else, initiating a job search around the Capitol Hill and getting an offer from the office of the Speaker of the House to be their Deputy Legislative Director. When she informed Peter about this over dinner at an upscale restaurant, he was initially visibly taken aback though he quickly composed himself enough to unconvincingly answer that he's fine with whatever she decides. When they got home later that night, as they're getting ready to go to bed, he came across his baggie of cocaine and decided to empty it clandestinely into the sink followed by walking out of the bathroom into the bedroom and admitting to her sheepishly that he doesn't actually want her to take the job - signs perhaps of his intent to give up drugs as well as a decision to invest himself more emotionally into the relationship with Christina. The next day, Sunday, she slept in, but he was already up, working on his presentation for the upcoming BRAC hearing. Pleasantly surprised to find him working on a Sunday, something he's never done before, Christina informed him that her hypothetical decision to reject the job offer would be made for her and not for him, before joining him to help out with BRAC preparations.
Just as Russo seemed to be putting his vices under control, Underwood and Stamper began turning the screws on him even tighter. Seeking a House majority in order to get rid of the Speaker of the House Bob Birch who refused to put the education bill on the House floor, Underwood began pursuing Representative Terry Womack (D-MO), the leader of the 12-person strong Black Caucus, by promising him the House Majority Leader position as well as vowing to keep the 3,000-employee air force base open in his congressional district. Keeping Womack's base open required closing another military installation somewhere else and Underwood made a choice - it would be the 12,000-employee Philadelphia naval shipyard in Russo's district and all Russo had to do is stay silent at the BRAC hearings.
To make sure Russo got the message, Underwood made an unannounced visit to his apartment the night before the hearing. There with his kids because his ex-wife decided to go down to Orlando with a date, Russo became devastated when Underwood put the request to him in threatening tone, alluding menacingly to the harsh consequences should he disobey.
Caught between the rock and the hard place, effectively forced into choosing between instantly having his congressional career destroyed forever and severely alienating his constituency thus risking re-election, tormented Russo decided to keep mum at the hearing. Overwrought with guilt and unable to cope with his choices, the same day he descended back into alcohol and drugs.
Returning from the shipbuilders' meeting in Philadelphia, Christina showed up at their apartment later that day only to find Russo's two kids there - thus meeting them for the first time - who didn't know where their father went. At night he staggered home completely wasted as disappointed Christina watched him crawl into bed, again completely emotionally disconnected from one another. Fed up and drained by her troubled partner's latest relapse, the next morning as she prepared his kids to take them to school, Christina told hungover Russo that she's leaving him and quitting her job as his secretary. They ran into each other one more time later in the day when he arrived at the office as she was tying up loose ends at work before leaving. Clearly distraught, Russo barely managed to say a coherent word to her as the burden of the shipyard closing outweighed his feelings for Christina for the time being.
Getting back together with Russo and the gubernatorial campaign
After convincing Russo to run for the vacated Pennsylvania governor post and engineering his gubernatorial campaign, Underwood was also able to get Christina to return to Peter. As Russo is cleaning up his act through AA meetings as well as making amends with his constituency and campaigning around the state, Christina is firmly by his side offering comfort and emotional support. He even introduces her to his cranky mother and takes her to his childhood home as their once broken relationship seems to be mending. However, it all starts to unravel again after Russo is coaxed into having a drink by Posner who was put up to it by Underwood via Stamper. As Russo slips back into alcoholism, Christina tries unsuccessfully to get through to him while the campaign goes completely off the rails.
After Russo's death
After Peter Russo's death, Christina's way of dealing with the tragedy was making a swift break that included not even going to his funeral. She immersed herself fully into work, running every aspect of the congressional office Russo left behind. After coordinating and getting approval from the DCCC, in late October 2013 she summoned Paul Capra, Russo's childhood friend turned adversary turned friend again, who is influential with the Philadelphia trade unions, to D.C. in order to get him to run for Russo's vacated seat in the House. Thinking she invited him to D.C. for emotional comfort, he was shocked at hearing the offer, feeling it's too soon only a month after Russo's death though remaining coy as to whether he'll accept to run.
Through her sources at the DCCC, Slugline journalist Janine Skorsky immediately learned of the plans to enter Capra in the race for Russo's seat as well as Capra's trip to D.C. to meet with Christina. Skorsky called Capra to confirm that information, but he remained coy though revealing to her that Russo was pressured from above to stay silent at the BRAC hearing. Skorsky started connecting the dots and, though lacking proof, began suspecting the pressure Capra mentioned must've come from Frank Underwood, reasoning that the fact Underwood had nothing to do with Russo before the shipyard closing and then suddenly started propping him up in the gubernatorial race is highly suspicions. Also long suspecting Underwood has been feeding stories to her co-worker Zoe Barnes, Skorsky mentioned her Russo-Underwood hypothesis to Zoe who expressed doubts at this version of events. Attempting to convince Zoe, Skorsky then directly confronted her younger colleague about Underwood being the source of her big breaking stories, however Zoe wouldn't admit that to Skorsky, but still conceded to knowing him and agreed to ask him about the alleged BRAC-related strong-arming of Russo. Meeting him in the Capitol corridor and framing the question as 'my colleague is investigating a story', Zoe, as promised, asked her source Underwood about it, to which Underwood nonchalantly, calmly, and convincingly lied, passing it off as mere advice to Russo to stay silent at the hearings for a later benefit from Womack. He also quickly connected the dots that the colleague Zoe mentioned is Janine Skorsky and somewhat sternly inquired with Zoe if Skorsky knows the two of them are talking to which Zoe reassured him that Skorsky doesn't know.
Seeing Christina as potential Achilles' heel that could provide further information that would lead someone to connecting Russo's death with Frank Underwood, Doug Stamper monitored her closely. When Skorsky approached Christina in the congressional cafeteria to ask her questions about Capra running and Russo being pressured to not fight the shipyard's closing, she quickly got interrupted by Stamper who joined their table, effectively chasing Skorsky away before telling Christina to let him know if she's again harassed into answering questions she doesn't want to answer. Shaken up by this encounter, Christina went back to the office to look through Russo's personal belongings, seemingly for the first time since his death, all of which got her very emotional. To Skorsky, Stamper's sudden appearance when she sat down to talk to Christina was further indication of Underwood's untoward involvement with Russo while Zoe, though open to question, still thought Underwood had nothing to do with Russo's silence at the hearings. Upon some investigating of her own by sifting through the recent congressional activity records, Zoe began to think Russo's silence at the hearing was simply trading in a favour to Rep. Terry Womack for some benefit down the road. However, after reminding Zoe of Underwood's involvement in many different recent events around the Congress, Skorsky raised sufficient doubt in Zoe's mind whether Roy Kapeniak's phone call to her, confirming that Michael Kern wrote the 1978 anti-Israel editorial, was in fact also engineered by Underwood, something Zoe had been suspecting right from the start.
After flying out to talk to Kapeniak only to find his stripper girlfriend, but nevertheless discovering that Russo paid them a visit on 24 January 2013, Zoe is finally fully convinced of Underwood's scheming when it comes to Russo. Once she got back to D.C., Zoe started working with Skorsky as the two female journalists finally seemed to have dropped any remaining traces of mistrust, jealousy, and antagonism. They agreed that their first order of business is to go back to Christina, deciding that it will be Zoe who does this since Skorsky is being watched by Stamper. Barging into Russo's former office to talk to Christina without an appointment, Zoe told her Russo flew out to see Kopeniak on the night of 24 January 2013, asking her if she remembered anything else. Though dismissive at first, Christina became clearly shaken up as she recalled the night Russo stormed out of their apartment at 1am without a convincing explanation.
Doug Stamper continued his close monitoring of Christina and soon met with her suspecting she hasn't been completely forthcoming about her contacts with journalists. She admitted that Zoe visited her and that "she knew things about Peter like something to do with Kern losing the nomination" all of which was enough for Stamper to raise alarms with Underwood.
Presidential staff
In early December 2013 Christina got a job on the President's staff. Listing the fact she single-handedly ran Russo's office as well as the entire congressional district for the past nine weeks as an achievement that recommends her for the job, Christina got hired by the President's Chief of Staff Linda Vasquez. After the death of Zoe Barnes, Christina, was approached by Lucas Goodwin.
She is suspected by Claire Underwood to be having an affair with President Garrett Walker, and later suspected by the president's wife, Patricia Walker, as well. Patricia convinces the president to fire Christina after subtle hints made to that effect by Claire Underwood.
Personality
A competent, skilful, and hard worker, Christina is very motivated when it comes to furthering her administrative career on the Capitol Hill. On numerous occasions and in different situations, she displayed flexibility, quick thinking, and timely execution in regards to the work at hand.
Young, wide-eyed, and non-confrontational, Christina also shows a mixture of naïvete and willful ignorance in certain situations.
While in a personal and professional relationship with Representative Peter Russo, Christina seemed willfully ignorant on occasion when it came to the extent of Russo's vices, a trait she much more obviously showed again later after his death with respect to the malign involvement of Frank Underwood and Doug Stamper in the life and death of her late boyfriend/boss.
As a member of the President Garrett Walker's staff, Christina was easily manipulated by the Second Lady Claire Underwood who used her as an instrument in order to unsettle the First Lady Patricia Walker.
Behind the Scenes
Christina Gallagher was portrayed by Kristen Connolly in Seasons 1 and 2 of House of Cards.
Appearances
| Season 1 | ||||
| "Chapter 1" | "Chapter 2" | "Chapter 3" | "Chapter 4" | "Chapter 5" |
| "Chapter 6" | "Chapter 7" | "Chapter 8" | "Chapter 9" | "Chapter 10" |
| "Chapter 11" | "Chapter 12" | "Chapter 13" | ||
| Season 2 | ||||
| "Chapter 14" | "Chapter 15" | "Chapter 16" | "Chapter 17" | "Chapter 18" |
| "Chapter 19" | "Chapter 20" | "Chapter 21" | "Chapter 22" | "Chapter 23" |
| "Chapter 24" | "Chapter 25" | "Chapter 26" | ||
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