the first united states secretary of state in the dalton administration, vincent marsh (portrayed by brian stokes mitchell) is a former senator who had ambitions of being president. he was killed in a plane crash over the atlantic ocean in 2014. he was succeeded by elizabeth mccord, who investigated his death and learned that he was part of an attempted coup d'état against iran, but was killed by his co-conspirators when he began having doubts about the plan.