Jeb Bush Will ‘Actively Explore the Possibility of Running for President’
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Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call(WASHINGTON) — Jeb Bush announced Tuesday morning that he will “actively explore the possibility of running for president of the United States.”
Bush said he made the decision over the Thanksgiving holiday in consultation with his family.
“As a result of these conversations and thoughtful consideration of the kind of strong leadership I think America needs, I have decided to actively explore the possibility of running for President of the United States,” he said in a message posted on Facebook Tuesday.
“In January, I also plan to establish a Leadership PAC that will help me facilitate conversations with citizens across America to discuss the most critical challenges facing our exceptional nation. The PAC’s purpose will be to support leaders, ideas and policies that will expand opportunity and prosperity for all Americans,” Bush said in the message, which he also tweeted. “In the coming months, I hope to visit with many of you and have a conversation about restoring the promise of America.”
I am excited to announce I will actively explore the possibility of running for President of the United States: https://t.co/luY4lCF2cA.
— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) December 16, 2014
A top Republican close to Bush told ABC News the reason behind his timing Tuesday is to send the message to donors, GOP activists and other 2016 prospects that he is dead serious about running and they should take that into account. In short, hold off and don’t sign on with anyone else.
This could be bad news for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who is already planning a run. When asked if he still will, an aide said: “We’ll see.”
On Monday, Bush delivered the commencement address at the University of South Carolina, but offered no hints about Tuesday’s announcement. Instead, he gave graduates three pieces of advice.
“Dream big, don’t be afraid of change and find joy everywhere you can,” Bush told the attendees.
The speech came a day after he told ABC News’ Miami affiliate WPLG-TV he would not only release an e-book, but also 250,000 of his emails from his time in office. In the interview that aired Sunday on WPLG, Bush hinted that he planned to “make up my mind in short order” about jumping into the 2016 race.
“One of the things I am going to do as I go through this process is release all of my e-mails and write an e-book, which has been kind of fun to go back and to think about this, and remind myself that if you run with big ideas and then you’re true to those ideas, and get a chance to serve and implement them and do it with passion and conviction, you can move the needle,” Bush said in the intevriew. “And that’s what we need right now in America.”
Bush said the e-mails would be made public early next year. He decided to release them, he said, in the interest of “transparency” and in order to “let people make up their mind.”
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