BUSH DIES AT 94

George H.W. Bush, the 41st president of the United States who was elected to the nation’s highest office in 1988 but was defeated in his bid for re-election four years later, has died, his family confirmed Friday night.

George H.W. Bush, the 41st president of the United States who was elected to the nation’s highest office in 1988 but was defeated in his bid for re-election four years later, has died, his family confirmed Friday night. He was 94.

A statement was posted on Twitter by a spokesman for former President George W. Bush:

“Jeb, Neil, Marvin, Doro, and I are saddened to announce that after 94 remarkable years, our dear Dad has died. George H.W. Bush was a man of the highest character and the best dad a son or daughter could ask for. The entire Bush family is deeply grateful for 41’s life and love, for the compassion of those who have cared and prayed for Dad, and for the condolences of our friends and fellow citizens.”

As president, George H.W. Bush may not have spent much time in Arizona, but over the years, he and his family have made an impact on the state’s politics, sometimes in subtle ways.

He served with a vice president — Dan Quayle — who grew up in the state as the grandson of former Arizona Republic and Phoenix Gazette owner Gene Pulliam and still lives in Paradise Valley.

Bush’s political clout, even after he left Washington, helped various Arizona political hopefuls gain traction. In recent years, Bush and his family, one of the most accomplished in U.S. political history and a Republican dynasty, figured into several of Arizona’s election campaigns.

Former first lady Barbara Bush, his wife of 73 years, died April 17, 2018, at the age of 92.

Gordon C. James, a Phoenix publicrelations executive who worked in the Bush White House’s advance office in 1989 and 1990, recalled Bush, who served a single term as the nation’s 41st president from 1989 to 1993, as a throwback to a more genteel and civilized — or “kinder, gentler” — era of American politics.

Sometimes that backfired, “and he got accused of being a lapdog because he was just trying to be a nice guy.”

“He was so courteous to everyone that worked for him,” James said. “I have a drawer full of thank-you notes from him. Handwritten thank-you notes. There was no reason for him to do that; that was my job.”

Running mate with Arizona connections

James met Bush in 1978 in Iowa and rented him his first office space for his 1980 run for president. Bush lost the Republican nomination that year to Ronald Reagan, but Reagan tapped Bush as his running mate and he became vice president.

James became a Bush loyalist. “I’ve basically been with him ever since,” James said. “I worked on his ‘80 campaign, his ‘84 Reagan-Bush campaign and his ‘88 Bush-Quayle campaign.”

Bush did make several appearances in Arizona over the years, including a September 1991 presidential visit to the Grand Canyon. Bush’s visit to the Canyon, where he hiked a trail and touted his administration’s work to rid the canyon of haze, was the first by a president since President Franklin Roosevelt stopped by in 1941.

Bush drummed up support in Arizona for a 1980 presidential campaign with a Sept. 29, 1979, visit to Phoenix. He met with business leaders at the Phoenix Country Club and headlined a Republican Trunk ‘n’ Tusk dinner at the old high-rise TowneHouse hotel at Central and Clarendon avenues. On the trip, Bush called for a $20 billion tax cut and a $5 billion increase in defense spending to $8 billion.

During the 1988 campaign, when Quayle was ultimately chosen as the vice-presidential nominee, U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was rumored to be one of Bush’s choices for running mate. At the time, McCain was serving his first Senate term and was best known outside of the state as a celebrated former prisoner of war in Vietnam.

“Before Dan Quayle came popping out on the dock in New Orleans (site of the 1988 Republican National Convention), the last name eliminated for consideration by the AP wire was John McCain,” Scott Celley, a McCain aide at the time, told The Republic many years ago.

McCain later downplayed the media speculation. “I had clearly made the press’ short list,” but confirmed he had never actually heard from Bush or his team about the vice-presidential slot.

McCain later would tangle with Bush’s son, then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush, in a fight for the 2000 GOP presidential nomination; the younger Bush prevailed and would serve two terms in the White House.

McCain died Aug. 25 at age 81.

All in the family

But even Bush’s choice, Quayle, represented an Arizona connection, given his family ties to the state. Quayle was a U.S. senator from Indiana, but he moved back to Arizona in 1996. In 1999, he made his own short-lived run for his party’s 2000 presidential nomination and his son, Ben, would serve a single term in Congress as a Republican representative from Arizona.

Despite soaring poll numbers following the Persian Gulf War of 1991, the Bush-Quayle ticket lost the 1992 election to Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, the Democratic nominee, and his running mate, Sen. Al Gore of Tennessee.

Bush did not harbor bitterness toward Clinton over the loss, James said.

“I got to travel with them to the Maldives during the tsunami disaster and the two of them really got to be quite close,” James told “President Bush and President Clinton did a (2005) fundraising tour of that area and I was part of that tour. It was very interesting to watch them together. They had a very close relationship, actually.”

More recently, a second Bush son, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, unsuccessfully sought the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. Jeb Bush was supported in Arizona by James, Dan Quayle and former Gov. Fife Symington, but ultimately dropped out of the race before the state’s March 26, 2016, GOP presidential preference election, or primary.

Benefactor for state’s Republicans

Over the years, the Bush family also has been a political and financial benefactor for certain Arizona Republicans, including McCain.

When he was president, Bush spoke at a May 28, 1992, fundraising dinner for McCain. The event was billed as a tribute to former Sen. Barry Goldwater, the then-retired five-term Arizona Republican and 1964 GOP presidential nominee.

While in town, Bush also announced the formation of a National Veterans Committee for Bush-Quayle ‘92. He appeared with McCain before 200 veterans and their families at the American Legion Hall, 340 N. Seventh Ave., Phoenix.

“We’re both pretty lousy pilots,” McCain said at the event. “We both got shot down.”

During World War II, Bush had served under McCain’s grandfather, Adm. John S. McCain.

Earlier in the day, then-Gov. Fife Symington and other state dignitaries greeted Bush at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

In 2010, Bush hosted a Houston fundraiser for Ben Quayle’s congressional campaign. Many of the younger Quayle’s supporters were a who’s who of Bush administration alumni.

Though Bush never donated money to Ben Quayle’s campaign, his son and daughter-in-law, former President George W. Bush and Laura Bush, shelled out $7,000 to Ben Quayle. Quayle lost a re-election bid in 2012 to fellow GOP incumbent Rep. David Schweikert.

The elder Bush also lent his political weight to one of his former administration staffers, Vernon Parker, in a campaign for Congress in 2012. Parker, a Republican and former Paradise Valley mayor, touted the Bush endorsement on official letterhead early in a crowded primary.

Parker went on to secure the nomination but lost to Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema.