When a presidential candidate dies unexpectedly in the middle of the campaign, Washington, D.C. alderman Mays Gilliam is unexpectedly picked as his replacement.
One candidate for the presidency dies in an accident a couple of weeks before the election. Meanwhile the alderman Mays Gilliam becomes a hero when he rescues a woman and her cat from an old house that would blow up. However his fiancee Kim does not pay his bills and dumps him, and Gilliam loses everything including his fancy car. When Senator Bill Arnot sees the news on television, he plots a scheme with the party advisors Martin Geller and Debra Lassiter to invite Mays to be the party nominee and lose the election for the other candidate, Vice-President Brian Lewis. Four years later, he would be the candidate and would have the chance of winning the election. Mays has a terrible beginning of campaign but when his older brother Mitch Gilliam meets him in Chicago, he advises Mays to be himself. Will he have the chance to be the first African American President of the USA?—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Mays Gilliam, a Washington D.C. neighborhood Alderman, is about to be red-lined out of his job. But after the untimely death of the party frontrunner, Gilliam is plucked from obscurity and thrust into the limelight as his party's nominee--for President of the United States. The players in Gilliam's life include: Mitch Gilliam, his unsophisticated older brother who becomes his running mate; Kim, his ex-girlfriend who had dumped him, but has a sudden change of heart as she sees a chance at becoming First Lady; Martin Geller, his campaign manager; Lisa Clark, the woman who truly believes in Gilliam; and Debra Lassiter, the woman who doesn't have faith in his candidacy and is serving as his reluctant advisor.—Sujit R. Varma
Mays Gilliam (Chris Rock) is the alderman for the 9th Ward in Washington, D.C. Gilliam works a tough neighborhood with a high crime rate. The local residents trust him as he genuinely understands their problems and tries his best to help people. A local woman's home Miss Pearl is due for demolition after she was paid $40,000 for it. The woman comes back on the day of the demolition as her cat is stuck inside the house. As Gilliam tries to argue with the demolition crew, Miss Pearl goes inside the house and Gilliam learns that the demolition countdown cannot be stopped. Gilliam risks his own life to rescue Miss Pearl before the house is demolished.
Gilliam learns that is likely to lose his job as the Mayor hates him. The tendency to help people costs money and it makes the Mayor look bad. So, the Mayor evicts Gilliam out of his office. Even Gilliam's lawyer Bernard Cooper (Keith David) asks Gilliam to fit in.Gilliam is also getting dumped by his girlfriend, Kim (Robin Givens). Kim leaves Gilliam as she thought he had potential, but now she believes that he is stuck in a rut.
But then Gilliam is unexpectedly chosen as the Democratic Party candidate for the 2004 presidential election after his party's original presidential and vice-presidential nominees die in a plane crash, and Gilliam is being hailed as a hero by the media for saving Miss Pearl.
Assuming the election was already lost to incumbent Republican vice-president Brian Lewis (Nick Searcy), the Democrats (led by Senator Bill Arnot (James Rebhorn), Debra Lassiter (Lynn Whitfield) and Martin Geller (Dylan Baker)) decided to pick a likable but unwinnable minority candidate to improve their chances in the 2008 presidential election. All the other options for the Presidential ticket had one vice or another and were too open to attack on the campaign trail.With Gilliam, Bill reckons that the minorities will be happy with the Democrats and will again vote for them in 2008. Bill intends to run for President in 2008 and offers the running mate position to Debra to get her support.
Debra convinces Gilliam that Congressmen and Senators are politicians and Alderman work with the people, hence he is perfect for the role. Bill says that in every situation Gilliam cares about the little people and this would be his chance to make a difference on the biggest stage of all.Mr Earl (Jude Ciccolella) is assigned as Gilliam's security director. Nicollette "Nikki" White (Stephanie March) is assigned as the executive director of Internal Liaison. Martin explains that Nikki's main job is to sleep with Gilliam as the campaigns cannot afford sex scandals.
Mays even finds time to romance Lisa Clark (Tamala Jones), a gas station attendant he crosses paths with (she works a second job as a cocktail waitress and Gilliam meets her at one of the fund-raising events), and who has been a huge supporter of Mays.Just as Gilliam hits the campaign trail, Kim returns to Gilliam and claims that they are engaged. Gilliam calls in security to remove her.
At first, Gilliam feels he will not be able to succeed as president because he would be representing the entire African American populace and does not want to do anything to damage his reputation. Gilliam is given vague and similar sounding speeches to make at every public rally and his support is stuck at 10%. His brother Mitch joins the campaign trail before his rally in Chicago. Mitch is a bail bondsman.However, Gilliam begins to rise in the polls after his brother Mitch (Bernie Mac) persuades him to speak out for what he believes in. He ditches the bland, boring, and uncontroversial speeches prepared for him and begins to talk honestly about major issues such as welfare, health-care, income inequality, pension reforms, education, and society overall. He knows that most people work 2 jobs just to be broke. He coins the catch phrase "That A'int Right" for everything that he finds wrong with American society and economy.
Gilliam changes the entire tone of his campaign to represent him and gives his support to niche minority groups such as gays and escorts.After Lewis runs a series of attack ads including one saying Gilliam supports cancer, Gilliam begins to fight back using what he claimed was "kissing" his opponent (taken from Bugs Bunny-Elmer Fudd cartoons). A part of this strategy includes dubbing a videotape of Osama bin Laden saying he hates America but loves Brian Lewis. This strategy gains Gilliam even more points in the polls.
As Gilliam gets to 30 points in the poll, even if he loses, he will be the front-runner for 2008. Bill wants Debra to kill Gilliam's campaign, but now even she supports him and refuses to toe the line with Bill.Lewis refuses to have a debate with Gilliam. Bill gets his investigators to release news footage that show Gilliam in association with known drug peddlers and criminals.
As election day draws closer, Gilliam eventually learns the reason why he was chosen as the party candidate, fires campaign operatives Martin and Debra. Martin reconciles with him afterwards and says that he really wants to help Gilliam.Martin convinces Gilliam to come back stronger in his campaign and chooses his brother as his running mate. Mitch again brings the attention back to the main campaign topics and helps erase the negativity around Gilliam.Gilliam hounds Lewis till he agrees for a debate. Gilliam reaches out to Debra to help prepare for the debate. Gilliam manages to win the crowd over by speaking truth about American life. He talks about educating the kids by disciplining them, as much as needed. He suggests putting guns laws on video to educate the people about them. Gilliam talks about paying farmers not to grow food, while millions go hungry, about heroine being cheaper than AIDS medicine, and about spending billions overseas without any impact. Gilliam argues that the country was built by people who were doing things for the first time.
Finally, Gilliam ends up winning the presidency, and proposes to Lisa by saying he wants to make her his First Lady.
