Tracy Enid Flick is a fictional character who is the subject of the 1998 novel Election by Tom Perrotta and portrayed by Reese Witherspoon in the 1999 film adaptation of the same title.

Witherspoon's performance as Tracy was widely acclaimed by critics and garnered her multiple awards and nominations, including a Golden Globe nod.

The character has since become an icon, as her driven, focused personality and unpopularity among her peers have led to comparisons with many real-life public figures, particularly female politicians such as Hillary Clinton.

[2] Tracy is an ambitious high school junior, preparing for an easy election to the office of student body president after three years of extracurricular toil.

Despite Jim's conviction of her guilt, she escapes punishment through a stroke of pure luck when Tammy claims responsibility for the crime and is subsequently expelled, which was her objective in "confessing."

In the late 1990s, following her starring roles in the 1996 dramas Fear and Freeway, Witherspoon found herself in an unexpected career slump that led her to change direction.

"[3] Roger Ebert began his review of Election, "I remember students like Tracy Flick, the know-it-all who always has her hand in the air, while the teacher desperately looks for someone else to call on.

He goes on to compare Tracy to Elizabeth Dole: "a person who always seems to be presenting you with a logical puzzle for which she is the answer... She is always perfectly dressed and groomed, and is usually able to conceal her hot temper behind a facade of maddening cheerfulness.

Not to belittle the efforts of the Cultural Values Committee, but a brief aside to show that Clinton understands that high school sociopolitics is not exactly on par with race relations would be nice.

"[15] In 2008, after Clinton's defeat for the Democratic presidential nomination, multiple commentators likened Tracy to the Republican vice-presidential nominee, Alaska governor Sarah Palin.

[19] In the late 2010s, in the wake of the MeToo movement, some critics began reevaluating the character, noting that Flick, an inexperienced underage girl, was the victim of child grooming by one teacher, and subjected to an effort to deny her legitimate election win by another, as revenge for her part in revealing the misconduct of the first.