Minnesota Republican Party Chair David Hann has presided over some difficult recent elections for his party, but he went into Election Day this year full of confidence. He says it was the result of a call with officials in President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign.

“They were very, very positive, which is a little unusual,” Hann said in an interview recorded for “At Issue with Tom Hauser.” “I’ve had a lot of these conversations over the years. A week before an election campaigns typically are not that enthusiastically positive. But the Trump campaign, they felt they had enough to win an electoral majority in the electoral college as well as the popular vote and they expressed that opinion to me a week before the election. So I took from that they felt pretty good about where the numbers were and how things were trending.”

This week, Trump has dominated headlines with a series of controversial cabinet nominations. Hann says he’s not concerned the president-elect will overreach.

“Obviously, I think President Trump ran on and has always talked about being a change agent in Washington,” Hann said. “Trying to change the establishment, if you will, and bring in some new voices. So I think he’s doing that with his picks for his cabinet positions, for his advisors. And I think you have to give the president, especially one that has won a substantial victory as he has, some deference in letting him pick who his advisors are.”

Former DFL Party Chair Mike Erlandson agrees a president gets some leeway on his cabinet picks, but there are limits and the possibility he’ll go too far.

“You know Donald Trump showed up in Washington eight years ago saying he was going to drain the swamp and he ended up being the biggest swamp monster we’ve ever seen as president of the United States of America,” Erlandson said. “He’s got a second act here. I thought his first pick was great for chief of staff, but it’s been pretty controversial ever since.”

You can see the entire interview with Hann and political analysis with Mike Erlandson and Andy Brehn Sunday at 10 a.m. on “At Issue.”