George P. Bush, the son of former Florida governor Jeb Bush, has urged other Republicans to vote for Donald Trump, becoming one of the only members of the Bush family to support the Republican nominee.
In his statements supporting Trump, Bush stopped short of giving a full endorsement, but framed it in terms of winning down ballot seats and defeating Hillary Clinton.
“From Team Bush, it’s a bitter pill to swallow, but you know what? You get back up, and you help the man that won—and you make sure that we stop Hillary Clinton,” Bush said at a Republican gathering in Texas over the weekend. Bush’s remarks were recorded by an audience member.
George P. is the land commissioner for Texas and is also serving as the state GOP’s victory chairman whose responsibility is overseeing the party’s statewide campaign in November.
One of the fears for the Republican Party is that the party’s lack of unity around Trump will result in down-ballot senators losing the party’s majority in the Senate and Congress.
The relationship between Trump and the Bush family has been a rocky one after he openly mocked Jeb Bush as “weak,” “low energy,” and “pathetic” during the primary season.
Trump also mocked the Bush family’s legacy, in particular, denouncing former President George W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq.
Both George W., Jeb, and their father George H.W. Bush have refused to endorse either Trump or Hillary Clinton, and abstained from attending the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio last month.
Jeb has said that he can’t vote for Trump or Clinton and that it breaks his heart.
“I can’t vote for Hillary Clinton and I can’t vote for Donald Trump, and it breaks my heart,” Jeb Bush said in an interview that aired on MSNBC in July. “This is my the first time in my adult life I’m confronted with this dilemma.”
Donald Trump has acknowledged his treatment of Jeb Bush.
“I was rough with Jeb Bush,” Trump said in an August ABC interview. “And I think if I was Jeb Bush, I wouldn’t vote for me either.”
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