In the early “will-he-or-won’t-he” days of a potential Jeb Bush presidential candidacy, there was one important naysayer: his mother, Barbara Bush.
But the famous former First Lady says she is all in behind another Bush for president campaign, sending a new cheeky donation solicitation with the subject line “I changed my mind!”
The line harkens back to when Barbara Bush first signaled her changed opinion in February at her foundation for family literacy in Bonita Springs, Florida, when she appeared via Skype during a Jeb Bush speech.
“Just listening in. Anyway … what do you mean too many Bushes? Are you talking about the legacy? That’s not what I’m talking about, but I’ve changed my mind,” she said.
“When the idea of Jeb running for President first came up, I was hesitant. You may have heard about that. When you see the pounding candidates, their spouses, and even their children take, what mother wouldn’t be?” wrote Barbara Bush in an email to potential donors Wednesday.
She says she is starting a “Run Jeb Run Fund.” asking for “$250, $100, $50, or whatever you can immediately.”
“I know that’s a lot to ask, but Jeb is our best chance of taking back the White House in 2016, and I hope that you will join me in pushing him to run,” wrote Barbara Bush.
Last January, she told C-SPAN she hoped Jeb would not run for the White House.
“If we can’t find more than two or three families to run for high office, that’s silly,” she said. “I think that the Kennedys, Clintons, Bushes—there are just more families than that.”
Bush’s new fundraising solicitation was sent from an email address from the Super PAC “Right to Rise” — formed at the end of last year for a potential presidential run.
Jeb Bush friends and associates say he is exceptionally close to his mother, and freely talks about her — and his father, the former president, on the campaign trail.