A grandson of the late President George H.W. Bush launched a congressional bid Monday in Texas, while aligning himself with President Trump to jump into a crowded Republican field for the suburban Houston seat.
Pierce Bush, currently the CEO of the Big Brothers Big Sisters’ Texas affiliate, told reporters he planned to talk up his nonprofit work, not his family name, in his bid to replace retiring GOP Rep. Pete Olson, NPR reported.
Bush, 33, is set to join one of the most crowded congressional races in the 2020 election. At least 14 other Republicans have been vying for Olson’s seat, which Democrats nearly flipped in 2018 and were targeting again.
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“This is not about my family. This is about the families of the 22nd Congressional District,” Bush said.
Former President George H. W. Bush leaving the field with the help of Pierce Bush, left, his grandson, before the a college football game in Houston, in 2009. (AP Photo/Dave Einsel, File)
In his announcement video, he said the nation has been on the “brink of losing a generation to an idea that socialism and free stuff are the answers for their future.”
In an interview with The Associated Press, Bush, who has not lived in the district he was hoping to represent, backed Trump’s policies.
“When you look at the alternative first of all, how can you be anything but a supporter of the president’s policies?” he said. “I look forward to being a partner in Washington, and speaking of course with my own voice, but supporting the president’s agenda.”
One of his GOP rivals, former Border Patrol agent Greg Hill, said he had “strong doubts about any candidate who would try to parachute into our district and buy this seat.”
Bush, whose father is Texas businessman Neil Bush, didn’t mention Trump in his announcement. The president has had a fraught history with the Bush family at best.
In the book “The Last Republicans,” the 41st president said of Trump, “I don’t like him,” before famously calling him a “blowhard.” He also said he voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.
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Trump mocked former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush during the 2016 presidential campaign, calling him “low energy.” During a visit to Texas earlier this year, he introduced George P. Bush, a Texas land commissioner, as “the only Bush that likes me.”
While discussing Trump, Pierce Bush criticized the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry against the president, calling it “an attack-at-all-costs politics.”
