Will Biden consider adding Republicans to his administration?

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In his victory speech, President-elect Joe Biden preached unity. 

"I pledge to be a president who seeks not to divide but unify. Who doesn't see red states and blue states, only sees the United States,” he said. To supporters of President Trump, he offered: “Let’s give each other a chance.” 

Will Biden consider Republicans for top spots? 

In an administration that promises to put forth a “president for all Americans,” offering Republicans a slot risks enraging the left-wing of the Democratic Party. 

Progressives sounded off when the Democratic National Convention featured a speech from former Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a former Trump opponent, who endorsed Biden. 

Just before the DNC, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter: “It's important to remember that Kasich is an anti-choice extremist. He 100% will (and has) signed away our reproductive rights the moment he has the opportunity to do so. He is not a friend to workers."

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Yet confirming a Republican appointee could be an easy win if the GOP ends up maintaining control of the Senate. That is still to be decided with a pair of runoff races in Georgia. 

Reaching across the aisle for senior members of the administration is not necessarily unusual. White House trade adviser Peter Navarro and former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn were both Democrats at the time President Trump appointed them.

Former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama had all done the same. 

Cindy McCain, the wife of the late Sen. John McCain, offered sway among Republicans with her endorsement of Biden. She works on Biden’s transition team, where she told ABC’s "The View" her job is to “help put good Republicans into places within the administration.”

Asked if she would consider serving in the cabinet, she said she was currently focused on uniting the country.

“This is an administration that’s going to be all-inclusive and there is a role for Republicans in the administration.”

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“Knowing Joe Biden I would be surprised if he doesn’t include Republicans in his Cabinet,” Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., told reporters. “I think it’s very possible that he will because he’s going to want the very best.”

When Stephen Colbert of "The Late Show" asked the former vice president in May if Republicans could find themselves working in his administration, he replied, "Yes, absolutely, look, this isn't a partisan issue. I know it sounds almost trite to say it. There's nothing partisan about this, and there are a lot of Republicans and a lot of Republican doctors and scientists that know what has to be done."

The Biden transition team told Fox News it had "not made any personnel decisions."

Meanwhile, the team told The Hill that “Diversity of ideology and background is a core value of the transition, and is an important step in unifying the country under a Biden-Harris administration.”

Among GOP names floating around for a Biden cabinet are Kasich, Quibi CEO Meg Whitman -- who was a senior member of Sen. Mitt Romney’s presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012 -- Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, who left his presidential ballot blank this year, former Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and former Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa. 

Flake is a fiscal conservative but has voiced support of immigration reform and touted friendships across the aisle with the likes of former Rep. Gabby Giffords, D-Ariz., and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, R-Ariz. Biden is projected to win Arizona, the first Democrat to do so since 1996. 

Kasich has already shot down the prospect of accepting a Biden cabinet position, telling CNN last month: “I'm not interested in returning to Washington ... Being in a cabinet or something like that just doesn't have any interest for me.” 

Dent, a former Ethics Committee chairman, endorsed Biden, and was one of four outspoken House Republicans to oppose repealing the Affordable Care Act. But his current work as a lobbyist could prove tricky with progressives, who are urging the Biden team to issue a blanket ban on all corporate lobbyists. 

Left-wing House members such as Ocasio-Cortez, Katie Porter, Ayanna Pressley, Raúl Grijalva and Rep.-elect Jamaal Bowman all signed a letter to Senate leaders before the election calling to bar C-suite level executives and corporate lobbyists from Senate-confirmed positions.

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“The revolving door needs to stop, not just change direction every few years,” the letter said of corporate-friendly officials in government.