Bush, John Ellis
("Jeb"), 1953- , American politician and
businessman, b. Midland, Tx, Univ. of Texas, Austin (B.A., 1974). Bush is
the son of George Herbert Walker Bush and younger brother of George
Walker Bush. After
completing college, he worked in banking and real estate as well as dabbling
in politics. He first ran unsuccessfully for Florida's governor in 1994,
losing to Democratic incumbent Lawton Chiles. Four years later, he won the
governorship, becoming Florida's first two-term Republican governor. As a
governor, he mixed pro-environmental support, signing a bill supporting the
restoration of the Everglades, and immigration reform, while taking
conservative positions like reducing taxes, elminating civil service
protection for state workers, supporting charter schools and school
vouchers, and moving Medicaid recipients into private managed-care systems.
Bush was a favored candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in
2016 but withdrew after poor showings in the initial presidential primaries.
See his Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution (2013;
with C. Bolick).
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