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WASHINGTON — Conventional wisdom since George P. Bush’s defeat Tuesday night holds that a dynasty that produced two presidents and a senator has now ended.
In truth, the Bush dynasty was already dying by the time Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton stomped its embers, fending off his challenge in the Republican primary runoff by a decisive 68-32 margin.
Bush’s dad, Jeb, got so little traction trying to become the dynasty’s third president that he was reduced to prompting an audience to clap at his applause lines. That was six years ago.
Two years later, George P. Bush managed to win reelection as Texas land commissioner in spite of the family name, not because of it.
He didn’t kill the dynasty. He prolonged its survival.
For 24 years, no election went by without a Bush on the ballot running for vice president or president.
But for over a decade, Republicans haven’t much been interested in the “kinder, gentler nation” vision George P.’s granddad pitched on his way to the Oval Office in 1988, or the “compassionate conservative” leadership his uncle, George W. Bush, promoted in his two terms as president.
The Republican Party has evolved drastically since then.
The Bush brand as reimagined by George P. is a closer fit with the party of Donald Trump, not that it carried the day this time.
As governor of Florida, Jeb Bush focused on education and preached inclusivity. As the 43rd president, George W. Bush’s slogan was “leave no child behind.”
Trying to outflank Paxton on the right, George P. promised to kick unauthorized immigrant children out of Texas schools.
“It’s a huge departure,” said presidential historian Jeffrey Engel, who has authored books on the Bushes’ foreign policy.
“In every generation we see the champion of the Bush dynasty move further and further to the right,” he said. “But great-grandpa and grandson would never have agreed on any of the issues. … George P. moved completely out of anything remotely near the family’s historical politics and origins to make himself viable and competitive.”
Mention the Kennedys and “liberal” comes to mind. It is still a known quantity. Classic Coke.
Voting for a Bush meant voting for the establishment, for ethics and noblesse oblige. George P.’s campaign, win or lose, cast doubt on whether “dynasty” really applies anymore.
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Not the end
The rise of Trump coincided with the death spiral of the Bush dynasty.
Trump had long accused Bush 43 of bungling the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was central to his appeal in the 2016 contest, when he skewered George P.’s dad as “low energy Jeb” and drove him from the field.
A first cousin of the lame duck land commissioner, Pierce Bush — son of Neil — tried to nab an open Houston-area congressional seat in 2020. He finished third in a 15-way primary and didn’t make the runoff.
While the rest of the Bush clan shunned Trump, George P. cozied up despite the manhandling and humiliation of his dad.
“I’m all about ‘America First,’” he said last June. “Trump is the center of the Republican Party.”
At George P.’s campaign kickoff last summer, he used the family fissure as a selling point, passing out red koozies with a quote from Trump: “This is the only Bush that likes me. This is the Bush that got it right. I like him.”
But loyalty is a core value for the Bushes. Whatever their growing political differences, George P.’s uncle and dad invested heavily in his bid for attorney general.
Bush 43 donated $140,000, including $25,000 five days before the runoff, according to campaign finance filings that list his occupation as “author/speaker” or “retired.”
A day later, Jeb Bush gave $50,000 to his son, bringing his total to $156,000.
Their brothers, Neil and Marvin, kicked in $1,000 and $5,000, respectively.
Longtime family associates say it’s premature to rule out a comeback. George P. is only 46, after all. And others in the clan bounced back from defeat.
“He’s not going to just throw in the towel. I would be very surprised. That’s not the Bush way,” said Mica Mosbacher, whose late husband, Robert Mosbacher Sr., served as commerce secretary in the elder Bush’s cabinet.