Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and republican whose brother -- George W Bush -- and father -- George H W Bush -- both served as presidents, formally jumped into the 2016 US presidential race on Monday.
On Monday, John Ellis Bush while formally announcing his presidential run, vowed to wage war on Washington’s political culture and insisted that his family name gave him no unique claim to the Oval Office.
As he drops his name into the hat, here are eight things you need to know about him.
1) The election of a third Bush would be an unprecedented feat for an American political dynasty. Other than John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams, only the Bush dynasty has sent two people to the oval office. A third Bush in the White House would be historically unprecedented.
2) When he was 17, Jeb taught English as a second language through a foreign exchange program in Leon, Mexico. While there, he met his wife Columba Garnica. The courtship between Bush and Garnica was an old-fashioned one. “For the first two weeks, he did not even hold my hand,” she told the Chicago Tribune in 1989. Since they lived in different countries, they wrote letters to each other every day. Two years later, he proposed marriage.
3) Jeb’s family has been quite controversial. His wife, Colomba, once tried to bring $19,000 worth of clothing and goods across the border, but only claimed $500 at customs. Once caught, she said it was because she was trying to keep the bills from her husband. His daughter, Noelle, has been arrested for forging a drug prescription and has undergone rehab therapy for substance abuse. He also once hired an undocumented worker for three years as caretaker for his children.
4) Bush takes Latin American cuisine seriously. When he was Florida’s governor, he sometimes cooked the family meal on Sunday nights, and he was adept at making a spicy guacamole from scratch.
5) Jeb Bush speaks Spanish fluently, and his ability to connect with the Latin American community -- Republicans and Democrats -- could be an important facet in a potential presidential run.
6) Jeb Bush’s logo for his presidential campaign on Twitter sent everyone into a tizzy. The logo -- Jeb! 2016 – sent the Internet into an overdrive, with many mocking the logo.
7) He’s has worked for a number of non-profit and charitable organisations throughout his life, including The Foundation for Florida’s Future (a think tank), the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, and the Foundation for Excellence in Education.
8) His three big policy issues are education, health policy, and the environment. While governor of Florida, Bush pushed a series of initiatives that led to a significant increase in the number of high schools reading and doing math on grade level. In health policy, Bush pushed to provide consumers with a variety of options, both public and private. He also set aside more than one million acres of the Everglades for conservation.
© 2024 Rediff.com -