The first season is set at the fictional Saint Sebastian High School in
Santa Barbara,
California. Payton Hobart, who has dreamed of being elected
President of the United States since childhood, is running for
student body president against the popular and athletic River Barkley. Payton, under the direction of his ambitious friends McAfee Westbrook, James Sullivan, and Alice Charles, chooses Infinity Jackson, a cancer patient and victim of
Munchausen by Proxy disorder, to be his
vice-president. Meanwhile, River, under the direction of his girlfriend Astrid Sloan, chooses Skye Leighton, a
gender-nonconforming black classmate, to be his vice-president. The second season is set in
New York City and
Albany, New York. Payton, now a student at
New York University, is running for a seat in the
New York State Senate against incumbent
Majority Leader Dede Standish. Payton, under the direction of his former classmates and
climate activist Infinity Jackson, runs an
ecocentric campaign. Standish, under the direction of her conniving campaign manager Hadassah Gold, runs a more conservative campaign. Meanwhile, Payton's adoptive mother, Georgina Hobart, having also become a politician on a whim, is running to be
Governor of California. ==Cast and characters==