George P. Bush climbs aboard Trump Train
Texas land commissioner becomes only member of powerhouse family to endorse the Republican candidate
The Texas land commissioner breaks with his father, Jeb, and other members of his family to back the GOP nominee.
AUSTIN — Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, who is leading the state GOP’s efforts to get Republicans elected in November, finally is aboard the Trump Train.
Bush, the 40-year-old son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, whom Trump had vanquished during the bruising Republican primaries to become the GOP nominee, told the State Republican Executive Committee at a Saturday meeting that it was time for the Texas party to move on and unite.
“From Team Bush, it’s a bitter pill to swallow, but you know what? You get back up and you help the man that won, and you make sure that we stop Hillary Clinton,” Bush said, according to a video of his remarks by someone who attended the meeting. It quickly went viral on YouTube.
After Trump clinched the nomination, the younger Bush told party insiders he would focus his victory push on Texas candidates and did not plan to help Trump who had harshly criticized his father during the earlier campaign.
A spokesman for Bush did not respond to a call for comment Monday.
Neither did spokespeople for Jeb Bush and former Presidents George
H.W. Bush, of Houston, and George W. Bush, of Dallas, though party insiders said there was almost no chance they will help Trump or even speak publicly about him before the November general election, partly because the Bush family is the political establishment he is running against.
“George P. Bush is in a different situation,” said Matt Mackowiak, a Republican political consultant in Austin. “There’s really no way he can run the victory fund without doing this — a soft endorsement, a forced endorsement that was entirely appropriate for him to make to the party insiders who were in that room. Unity is very important to people in that group.”
‘He barely did it’
Trump’s state director, Matt Mowers, also attended the event. And while he was unavailable for comment on Monday, other Trump campaign officials said privately they appreciate Bush’s words but do not think it will mean much by the time Texans go to the polls in November.
As head of the Lone Star GOP victory team, Bush is responsible for overseeing the party’s statewide campaign in November. The fund is expected to raise at least $1.4 million to help elect Republicans to a variety of Texas offices, from president and Congress to the state House and county posts, although candidates in some of those races quietly have moved to distance themselves from the controversial top-of-the-ticket nominee in areas where Trump is unpopular.
Since the GOP national primaries ended, prominent members of the Bush family have declined to endorse Trump. Several members of the Bush inner circle publicly criticized Trump, and at least one family member has hinted he will vote Libertarian in November.
On Monday, Lezlee Westine, who served as the White House’s director of public liaison and deputy assistant to President George W. Bush, became the latest high-profile Republican with Bush family ties to say they planned to vote for Clinton or sit out the election entirely.
“There was clearly mounting pressure on (George P. Bush) to get behind Trump, and that’s why he did it,” said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas who has closely monitored Texas politics for years. “He really didn’t want to do it for family reasons, but he was taking heat from party officials for not endorsing. The way Jeb was manhandled by Trump in the primary campaign upset the whole official Bush family. … It was a lackadaisical endorsement. He barely did it.”
Mark Jones, a political scientist at Houston’s Rice University, said George P. Bush has more to gain from Saturday’s call for unity behind Trump than in remaining silent.
“Holding out was an option, but if the Bush brand has a future, it is George P.,” Jones said. “If his career crashes and burns, then the Bush family name crashes and burns. And for his political future, he has to worry about running in future primary races — and he needs the state party for that.”
Could signal future run
Echoing the sentiments of other GOP political consultants and party activists, Mackowiak and Jones said Bush’s move to unify behind Trump likely will not hurt him in future races.
“If Trump wins, it helps him. If Trump loses by a small margin, it still helps him,” Mackowiak said.
“If anything,” Jones said, “it signals that he plans to run again at some point in the future, which is really no surprise.”