http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/obama-gop-winners-2014-midterm-election-112589.html?hp=l2resident Obama reaches out to GOP winners
By: Jennifer Epstein
November 5, 2014 12:45 PM EST
President Barack Obama has spoken with more than two dozen candidates and elected officials since Tuesday night and is continuing his outreach throughout the day Wednesday, the White House said.
But he had not yet reached Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the expected future Senate majority leader, for whom he’d left a message overnight.
Obama connected with five new senators-elect, including Democrat Gary Peters of Michigan and four Republicans: Mike Rounds, Shelley Moore Capito, James Lankford and Tom Cotton. He also spoke with Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), who lost to Cotton. Perhaps in a sign of bipartisanship to come, he also called several reelected Republican senators, including Lindsey Graham, Jim Inhofe, Susan Collins, Jeff Sessions and Tim Scott, who on Tuesday became the first African-American since Reconstruction to win a full term representing a southern state in the Senate.
The president also had conversations with Senate Democratic leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. And he spoke with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) after he easily won reelection in the president’s home state.
In addition, Obama spoke with Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, and with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). He had not yet spoken to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) or other House Republicans.
He also reached out to a handful of state leaders, including Govs. Robert Bentley (R-Ala.) and Bill Haslam (R-Tenn.), as well as governors-elect Tom Wolf (D-Pa.) and Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.).
The full list of calls as of midday Wednesday, via the White House:
Senator Harry Reid
Senator Dick Durbin
Senator Michael Bennet
AR Governor-elect Asa Hutchinson
SD Senator-elect Mike Rounds
WV Senator-elect Shelley Moore Capito
MI Senator-elect Gary Peters
Senator Lindsey Graham
Senator Jim Inhofe
Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Leader Nancy Pelosi
Governor-elect Tom Wolf, PA
Senator-elect James Lankford, OK
Senator-elect Tom Cotton, AR
Governor John Kasich
Senator Susan Collins
Senator Ed Markey
Senator Jeff Sessions
Senator Cory Booker
Senator Tim Scott
Senator Al Franken
Senator Mark Pryor
Congressman-elect Seth Moulton
Governor Robert Bentley
Governor Bill Haslam
