Former Gov. Jeb Bush, R-Fla., took a big step toward following his fathers and brothers footsteps to the White House on Tuesday as he launched a new leadership PAC to help advance his political agenda. Bush announced last month that he was exploring running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.
Bush filed the paperwork for Right to Rise PAC on Tuesday and released a video in which he talked about the new organization. In the video, Bush defined his new group as a PAC to support candidates that believe in conservative principles that will allow all Americans to rise up.
The new group launched a website which was up and running by Tuesday. At the site, besides focusing on Bush, the group called for allowing more Americans the opportunity to obtain the American dream and find security.
Millions of our fellow citizens across the broad middle class feel as if the American dream is now out of their reach; that our politics are petty and broken; that opportunities are elusive; and that the playing field is no longer fair or level, Right to Rise posted on its website. Too many of the poor have lost hope that a path to a better life is within their grasp. While the last eight years have been pretty good ones for top earners, theyve been a lost decade for the rest of America. We are not leading at home or abroad.
At the Right to Rise PAC, we will support candidates who want to restore the promise of America with a positive, conservative vision of reform and renewal, the group continued. We believe the income gap is real, but that only conservative principles can solve it by removing the barriers to upward mobility. We will celebrate success and risk-taking, protect liberty, cherish free enterprise, strengthen our national defense, embrace the energy revolution, fix our broken and obsolete immigration system, and give all children a better future by transforming our education system through choice, high standards and accountability. We will strive to put our fiscal house back in order, relimit government and ensure that America is a welcoming society.
We will not cede an inch of territory -- no issues, no demographic groups, no voters -- as we unite our citizens to strengthen America through greater economic growth and widespread prosperity, Right to Rise concluded. We believe in the transformative power of conservative ideas to renew America. Our nation can be dynamic and prosperous again, if we join together and fight for every Americans Right to Rise!
Bush will be able to use his new PAC to raise funds, hire staff, handle travel expenses and provide the basic framework as he continues to draw closer to launching a formal presidential bid. On Wednesday, Bush will host a major fundraiser in Greenwich, Conn., the old stomping grounds of his grandfather former U.S. Sen. Prescott Bush, R-Conn.
As Bush draws closer to a presidential bid, he continues to draw fire from his political foes, including the Democratic National Committee (DNC) which hit the former governor on same-sex marriage. With same-sex marriage taking effect in Florida this week, the DNC pointed to an op-ed Bush wrote in 1994 arguing against expanding civil rights to LGBT Americans.
Bush said on Monday that, while he opposed same-sex marriage, he had changed his mind on LGBT rights over the two decades since he penned that piece. That wasnt enough for Mo Elleithee, a spokesman for the DNC.
It took Jeb Bush 69 words to say absolutely nothing 69 words not to say, I support marriage equality. Nothings changed, Elleithee said. At the end of Bushs statement, he still had the same position: he opposes the right of gay and lesbian Floridians and all LGBT Americans to get married and adopt children. If he wants to tell us hes changed his position, great. But this was not that statement. It was typical Jeb Bush.
Back in December, after announcing his exploratory efforts, Bush dismissed attacks from the DNC.
Everywhere I go, people tell me how tired they are of the dysfunctional, squabbling silliness of politics today, Bush insisted. These silly talking points, misleading and misinformed as they are, show you just how void of ideas the Democrats have become after six years of poor results in every area of our nations business, from our struggling economy to our weakening position on the world stage.
If I do decide to run for president, I can promise you this: no more kindergarten attack politics, Bush added. Instead, I would offer a substantive campaign that will present the fresh conservative ideas and meaningful reforms that will help all Americans to rise up, seize opportunity and pursue a better life for themselves and their loved ones.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
