Bill Clinton had Republican William Cohen. George W. Bush had Democrat Norm Mineta. Barack Obama had Republicans Ray LaHood and Chuck Hagel.
Now President-elect Joe Biden, who called for ending this “grim era of demonization in America,” is likewise signaling he might reach across the aisle to name Republicans to a Cabinet post and other key slots in his administration.
It would be a return to bipartisanship, tradition and normalcy that has been missing in the Trump administration.
President Trump, who vilified his Democratic opponents and still has not conceded his defeat to Biden, did not name any Democrats to his Cabinet during his four years in office.
Two of the GOP possibilities come from Arizona.
Biden became the first Democrat to win the Grand Canyon State since Clinton in 1996.
Many believe it was endorsements from two respected Republicans — Cindy McCain and former Sen. Jeff Flake — that pushed Biden over the top.
McCain and Flake both said Biden would restore civility and honor to the White House.
Flake is a fiscal conservative but has been a proponent of immigration reform and has maintained friendships across the aisle, including with former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.) and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.).
He was a senator from Arizona from 2013 to 2019.
Before his election to the Senate, he had represented Arizona in the House of Representatives since 2001.
In August, Flake joined more than two dozen fellow former GOP members of Congress in backing a “Republicans for Biden” effort is his first formal endorsement of Biden for president.
Before leaving Congress last year, Flake emerged as a vocal Republican critic of President Trump and his administration and clashed frequently with the president.
He backed the impeachment effort against Trump and has said he will not vote for his party’s incumbent presidential nominee in 2020.
In 2017 when announcing his decision not to run for reelection, Flake slammed Trump’s “flagrant disregard for truth or decency, the reckless provocations, most often for the pettiest and most personal reasons”.
Trump in turn has called Flake “toxic” and had favorable words for his former primary opponent in Arizona.
“There may not be a place for a Republican like me in the current Republican climate or the current Republican Party,” Flake said at the time.
Biden gave McCain a speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention and named her to his transition advisory board.
She’s never held public office but had a front row seat to international diplomacy traveling around the world with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the war hero and 2008 GOP presidential nominee repeatedly disparaged by Trump.
She could serve as a top ambassador for Biden or in another diplomatic post.
Asked on ABC’s “The View” about serving in a Biden Cabinet, McCain replied: “This is an administration that’s going to be all-inclusive and there is a role for Republicans in the administration.”