Jeb Bush took to Facebook this morning to announce he will be “actively” exploring a potential 2016 presidential run. Here are nine facts you may not know about this probable GOP candidate.
1) Jeb is not actually his name—it is a combination of his initials: John Ellis Bush.
2) As the second son of George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush and the younger brother of George W. Bush, Jeb comes from a family of political leaders. If he wins in 2016, he would be the third Bush to join the presidential legacy.
Then-presidential candidate George W. Bush gets a brotherly embrace from Jeb during a fundraiser in 1999. (Photo: Joe Burbank/Newscom)
3) The last time Republicans won the presidency without a Bush on the ticket was in 1972 when Richard Nixon was re-elected.
4) Jeb worked as a volunteer on his father’s 1980 campaign, saying of the elder Bush, “My dad’s the greatest man I’ve ever met or will meet.”
5) When he was 17, Jeb taught English as a second language through a foreign exchange program in Leon, Mexico. While there, he met his wife Columba.
6) He is fluent in Spanish and graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in Latin American affairs.
7) Another potential 2016 contender, Marco Rubio, considers Jeb Bush a mentor, joking to a journalist 10 years ago, “He’s practically Cuban, just taller. He speaks Spanish better than most of us.”
Bush campaigning for Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., in 2010. (Photo: Martin Fried/Newscom)
8) He is the only Republican to serve two four-year terms as governor of Florida, a state that will be key to any 2016 presidential hopeful.
9) He was reportedly considered to be a candidate for NFL commissioner in 2006, but turned it down to finish out his term as governor.
