diff --git a/py/selenium/webdriver/remote/webelement.py b/py/selenium/webdriver/remote/webelement.py
index def53d040b29c..e054aebf43a32 100755
--- a/py/selenium/webdriver/remote/webelement.py
+++ b/py/selenium/webdriver/remote/webelement.py
@@ -29,6 +29,11 @@
 from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
 from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys
 
+try:
+    str = basestring
+except NameError:
+    pass
+
 
 class WebElement(object):
     """Represents an HTML element.