Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on Tuesday took his most definitive step yet toward running for president, announcing plans to “actively explore” a campaign and form a new political operation allowing him to raise money for like-minded Republicans.
In a holiday message posted on Bush’s Facebook page and Twitter account, the son and brother of past Republican presidents said he discussed the “future of our nation” and a potential bid for the White House with members of his family over the Thanksgiving holiday.
“As a result of these conversations and thoughtful consideration of the kind of strong leadership I think America needs, I have decided to actively explore the possibility of running for president of the United States,” Bush wrote.
He added, “In the coming months, I hope to visit with many of you and have a conversation about restoring the promise of America.”
Kristy Campbell, a spokeswoman for Bush, said he has not yet made a final decision on whether to seek the Republican Party’s presidential nomination in 2016. She said that he will announce his decision next year “after gauging support” for a run.
“This is a natural next step and represents a new phase of his consideration process,” Campbell said.
That phase will include an expansion of Bush’s political operations. He said Tuesday he will start his own leadership political action committee in January, which will allow him to raise money and use it to support candidates in other races.
In his statement, Bush said the committee “will help me facilitate conversations with citizens across America to discuss the most critical challenges facing our exceptional nation. The PAC’s purpose will be to support leaders, ideas and policies that will expand opportunity and prosperity for all Americans.”
Bush’s announcement is sure to reverberate throughout Republican politics and begin to help sort out a field that includes more than a dozen potential candidates, none of whom have formally announced plans to mount a campaign.
Should he ultimately decide to run, Bush can tap into his family’s vast political network and his campaign would attract strong support from the same donor pool that other establishment-minded Republicans — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie among them — need to fuel their own prospective campaigns.
A Bush candidacy also has the potential to affect the plans of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who came up through Florida politics as a strong Bush supporter and is considering whether to seek re-election to the Senate or run for president in 2016.
Tuesday’s statement is the latest and most definitive signal that Bush plans to try and become the third member of his family to serve as president. In a TV interview this past weekend, he said he “would be a good president,” disclosed that he was writing an e-book about his time as governor that would come out in the spring, and promised to release about 250,000 emails from his time in office.
During his two terms as Florida governor, Bush pushed for large tax cuts, overhauled Florida’s education system and led the charge to eliminate race-based policies in college admissions and state spending.
Since leaving office, Bush has continued to advocate for more changes to the nation’s schools, including the adoption of new education standards known as Common Core. Those standards have drawn the ire of conservatives who view them as a federal intrusion into local classrooms, but Bush has continued to call them critical to overhauling the country’s education system, while seeking common ground with opponents by saying states should be allowed to develop their own education programs.
(AP)
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6 Responses
This is mamosh terrible, his father and brother were horrendous presidents that pressued Israel and allowed massive numbers of Islamic and other immigrants here.
This country does not need another Bush disaster
1.
Let me guess, you probably have getchkas of Obomba, Clinton, Carter, FDR, Wilson, etc., to whom you bow to each morning and evening?
Granted, I wish they would have b een more fiscally conservative however all in all it wasn’t that bad. We weren’t running around with 50 million people on food stamps. We didn’t have a third of the country unemployed or underemployed under either of those two presidents.
you’re also forgetting that it was Bush 43 who allowed this is really government to do what they needed to do in uprooting terrorism. President Bush just let them go, the only stipulation was that they had to do it quickly before the rest of the world woke up. As far as that was concerned, he was far better than his father.
so is Jeb Bush on my favorites list? The answer is absolutely not! If heaven forbid he was the nominee what I vote for him, I hope not to have to make such a decision. I can certainly understand why four million Republican voters stayed home in the last presidential election. I am NOT like that because I don’t like handing elections over to the socialist democrat party.
#1: You are very funny, and Purim isn’t for 3 months.
The Bushes were two of the best presidents this country (and Israel) ever had.
It’s an absolutely horrible idea! This country has had enough of the Bushes and the Clintons and they should all go away! He’s nothing but a RINO and he will not win!
“We didn’t have a third of the country unemployed or underemployed under either of those two presidents.”
No, it was the fiscally conservative policies of Herbert Hoover who brought that about, and the safety net created by FDR that keeps us from falling back into another depression when your laissez-faire policies produce crashes like 1929 and 2008. We will have another such crash thanks to the derivatives deregulation the Republicans just rammed through Congress; hopefully the Congress and President will be Democratic or we will then face another 1933.