Just hours after Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie appointed him to fill the United States Senate seat that had been occupied for a half-century by the late Daniel Inouye, Brian Schatz settled in for his long flight to Washington.

He wasn’t flying coach.

“Just had a nice, brief chat with the President on Air Force One,” the senator-designate tweeted. “Looking forward to supporting his agenda in the Senate. …”

Though Schatz did not elaborate on his conversation with the president, the two men would have had much to talk about in addition to their common Hawaii roots — a strong connection that may have been a critical factor in Abercrombie’s somewhat surprising decision to appoint him. …

Four years before he became his state’s lieutenant governor, Schatz was one of the earliest (in late 2006) and most prominent Hawaiians to urge Obama publicly to seek the presidency. He went on to become a campaign spokesperson for that first White House run. …