NEWTON — The first African-American to be elected mayor of Newton has received a congratulatory telephone call from President Barack Obama.

Campaign manager Pat Johnson said today that the Obama called Setti Warren on Wednesday to wish him well after winning the mayor’s race this week.

Johnson said Warren was preparing to go on a local television show the first time the president called and was unable to talk to him. Obama called back an hour later.

Warren, an Iraq war veteran and former aide to U.S. Sen. John Kerry, was voted into office in the upscale Boston suburb when he defeated state Rep. Ruth Balser.

Warren was introduced to then U.S. Sen. Obama at a rally before he went to Iraq in fall 2007. Obama later became the nation’s first African-American head of state.