The earnest efforts by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to mend the GOP’s image with Hispanics has many saying a presidential bid for office may be in his sights in 2016.
As reported by La Plaza, Bush kicked off his campaign to woo Hispanics to the Republican Party last week with the Hispanic Leadership Network’s inaugural conference in Florida. The Hispanic Leadership Network was created as an offshoot of the American Action Network, a conservative organization that became one of the biggest-spending third party groups in this last election.
“It would be incredibly stupid over the long haul to ignore the burgeoning Hispanic vote,” Bush said at the conference last week.
While Latinos have been deserting the party as a result of the negative rhetoric on immigration Republicans have propelled, Bush has enjoyed support from the Hispanic community throughout his career. He is also bilingual and his wife is Mexican.
At the conference Bush said, “It’s also about showing people you want them to be part of the effort, putting in the time even when people aren’t looking…it means using rhetoric that doesn’t turn people off.”
Driving the point that it is “stupid” to steer Hispanic voters away, Bush singled out key swing states such as New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Florida and Texas where large and growing populations of Hispanics can make or break an election.
“We share many common values,” Bush said, “but if you turn it into ‘them and us’ that won’t help the GOP.”
Though he has not expressed any intent to run for president, he hasn’t ruled it out either. But depending on the success of his newly founded Hispanic Leadership Network and with two former presidents in the family tree, brother George W. Bush and father George H.W. Bush, rumors that he may be eyeing the executive office may not be so far off.
Perhaps the most telling sign of his intentions came recently when he was explicitly questioned over the matter and to which he replied, “Never say never.”
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