Jeb Bush in Miami: ‘The campaign begins today’
Jeb Bush took the stage Monday at the nation’s largest and most diverse university, the embodiment of working-class Miami’s aspirations, and declared himself the best presidential candidate to help all Americans build a better life for themselves and their families.
“Our country is on a very bad course. And the question is: What are we going to do about it? The question for me is: What am I going to do about it? And I have decided,” Bush said at Miami Dade College’s Kendall campus. “I am a candidate for president of the United States.”
“We will take command of our future once again in this country,” he continued. “We will lift our sights again, make opportunity common again, get events in the world moving our way again.”
Cheered on by a raucous crowd of about 3,000 people, including decades-long Bush loyalists, Bush committed himself to what will be a long political slog to secure the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.
“I will campaign as I would serve, going everywhere, speaking to everyone, keeping my word, facing the issues without flinching, and staying true to what I believe,” he pledged. “I will take nothing and no one for granted. I will run with heart. I will run to win.”
Bush, 62, argued that his experience as the first two-term Florida Republican governor since Reconstruction makes him the strongest contender for among more than a dozen GOP hopefuls expected to compete in next year’s primaries.
“We made Florida number one in job creation and number one in small business creation: 1.3 million new jobs, 4.4 percent growth, higher family income, eight balanced budgets and tax cuts eight years in a row that saved our people and businesses $19 billion,” he said.
Bush was joined on stage at the meticulously produced event by his wife, Columba, their three children — Jeb Jr., Noelle and Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, who warmed up the audience for dad — their grandchildren, and Jeb Bush’s sister, Doro Bush Koch. Former First Lady Barbara Bush was met with a rousing standing ovation, and she soaked up the love by spreading her arms out wide at the crowd.
In an only-in-Miami touch, the national anthem was intoned by Cuban-American musical royalty: Willy Chirino, wife Lissette and their three daughters, who perform as the Chirino sisters.
The pastor who led the invocation, the Rev. R.B. Holmes Jr. of Bethel Missionary Baptist Church in Tallahassee, is African-American (and introduced Bush when he ran for governor in 1998). Berthy De La Rosa-Aponte, an advocate for people with disabilities who spoke in English and Spanish after a Bush campaign video that features her and her autistic daughter, is Colombian-American. Bush has chided the GOP for years for failing to broaden its reach to minorities.
“He doesn’t care if you don’t speak like everyone else, or if you don’t speak at all,” De La Rosa-Aponte said. “He turned me into a believer. He turned me into a Republican.”
Before the speech, Jeb Bush gathered with about 200 “alumni” — longtime supporters, former aides and friends — to thank them and “get his crying out of the way,” according to Jon Hage, founder of Charter Schools USA and a former Bush policy analyst.
Hage quoted Bush as saying, “I couldn’t have done it without you from the beginning.”
Bush’s formal announcement brought little suspense — he has essentially been running a campaign for six months.
His decision in December to “actively explore” a candidacy jazzed the GOP establishment and portended a juggernaut that rivals would find difficult to defeat. Yet Bush, the son of former President George H.W. Bush and brother of former President George W. Bush, found during his extensive campaign travels that it would be more challenging than he expected to become the de facto front-runner. He also drew complaints from watchdogs who contend Bush has flouted campaign-finance law by not acknowledging his candidacy until now.
Despite amassing a financial haul he has called record-breaking, Bush has had to confront a GOP more populist and more conservative in rhetoric than the one he knew when he last ran for office in 2002. Bush twice won the Florida Governor’s Mansion after softening his “head-banging conservative” tone from his first unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign in 1994, and he has maintained his more inclusive message in an effort to appeal to moderate general-election voters.
That leaves Bush vulnerable in a more populist GOP packed with Republicans who were more recently elected and are aware of Bush fatigue — particularly when the likely Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, also invokes a political dynasty.
Bush’s hometown rival, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, who has pitched himself as the alternative to candidates of “yesterday,” noted Monday his personal history with Bush, a Rubio mentor.
“In politics, people throw around the word ‘friend’ so much it often has little real meaning,” Rubio said in a statement. “This is not one of those times. When I call Jeb Bush my friend, I mean he is someone I like, care for and respect. He and I have worked closely together for many years, on issues big and small.
“He is a passionate advocate for what he believes, and I welcome him into the race.”
Bush thanked him on Twitter: “Glad I can do it in our hometown. See you out there!”
With robust campaign coffers, Bush is poised to outlast rivals financially. Having realized he will have to fight for support, Bush has asked voters to consider him a “second choice” as they weigh their options. His popularity has fallen to an average nationally of 11.3 percent from 17 percent, according to Real Clear Politics. But many Republicans remain undecided and could see Bush as an electable choice, given his conservative record and command of policy.
Bush has said he intends to run “joyfully,” a characterization that has sounded like a reminder to his reserved, wonky self to remain upbeat and be unafraid to share emotions.
Democrats who lived through Bush’s tenure in Tallahassee, however, ripped him Monday as an “extremist,” criticizing his track record in and out of office and attempting to lump him with the rest of the GOP field as well as his brother and father.
“Jeb Bush only looks out for himself and people like him,” said U.S. Rep. Wasserman Schultz of Weston, the Democratic National Committee chairwoman. He never has and never will fight for middle class families. Maybe that’s why we used to call him King Jeb here in Florida.”
She characterized his policies as pro-Jeb and anti-Hispanic, anti-middle class, anti-woman and anti-gay rights.
Yet for voters gathered at the Theodore R. Gibson Health Center gymnasium to listen to Bush speak, the event was a chance to see a presidential contender up close.
“If a Republican is elected in 2016, we want it to be Jeb Bush,” said Michael Goodman of Homestead, a dive instructor and contractor — and independent voter — who said he likes Bush’s “Miami vibe” and “Latin connections.”
Mara C. Hernandez, a Cuban-born Hialeah resident, said she met Bush when he first ran for governor in the 1990s when he was handing out campaign literature at a shopping center.
“He floored me when he spoke to me in perfect Spanish,” said Hernandez, 64, a retired real-estate broker. “He was a wonderful governor and did a lot for Floridan and its citizens. As president he will be able to solve a lot of problems.”
This story was originally published June 15, 2015 at 8:10 AM with the headline "Jeb Bush in Miami: ‘The campaign begins today’."