Alan Alda will join the cast of The West Wing as a Republican senator this season, The Hollywood Reporter said Monday.

The Emmy-winning actor will play a senator from California angling for the presidency. Alda, best known as “Hawkeye” on M*A*S*H, originally was up for the role of President Bartlet, which is played by Martin Sheen. Now the actor may get the role of the presidency after all. Alda may not be the only actor competing to be The West Wing’s next president, another Emmy-winner, Jimmy Smits is also in talks to join the show as a Houston congressman also making a run for president.

Alda, who has a role in the Howard Hughes biopic, “The Aviator” has won five Emmys, most recently for his guest-starring stint on ER in 2001. It is hoped that Alda will help revive The West Wing, which despite receiving 12 Emmy nominations this season, is losing more viewers as time goes on. This will be the sixth season for the show which plans to run eight seasons, covering the entire Bartlet presidency.

The cast will also feature Marley Shelton, who most recently starred in “Uptown Girls” as a former newspaper feature writer who joins the White House staff to work for the press secretary. Mary McCormack, who guest-starred last season, will return as a regular.