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Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) leads a new CNN/ORC poll of the Republican presidential horserace as second-place finisher former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-Fla.) continues to fall from a large lead earlier this year. Rubio snagged 14 percent of Republican voters, enough for a slim 1-point lead over Bush, a fellow Floridian. Former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-Ark.) and Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wis.) follow with 10 percent, ahead of Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who each grabbed 8 percent.

Weakening ratings for Hillary Clinton present opportunities for her potential Republican opponents, even as their own contest morphs into an all-out free-for-all, with Jeb Bush surrendering his frontrunner status in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll. -snip- Bush, at the same time, has even greater difficulties with personal favorability than Clinton, and a far weaker home base. He’s lost 11 points in support for the nomination among Republicans and GOP-leaning independents who are registered to vote, from a front-running 21 percent in March to 10 percent now, smack alongside Scott Walker and Rand Paul (11 percent apiece) and Marco Rubio...

Former Florida governor and potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush said that although his pro-immigration views are not in line with his party’s base, he’s “not going to back down” on the country’s “immigration problem.” Speaking Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Bush said he’s “not going to back down” on immigration, insisting the country has an immigration problem and needs a path for illegal aliens “I think we have immigration problem,” said Bush. “It’s a system that’s broken. The legal system is broken. We need to narrow family petitioning expand economic immigrants. We need to enforce the law....

NASHVILLE — Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told nearly 1,500 Tennessee Republicans Saturday night that he and the GOP can win the White House next year “with a hopeful, optimistic message” and by reaching out to voters beyond conservatives and Republicans. Addressing the Tennessee Republican Party’s annual Statesmen’s Dinner, the former Florida governor and likely GOP front-runner, said “the next Republican president will win if they have a hopeful, optimistic message, not one that is completely negative; if they reach out to everybody in our country, not just those that have already decided that they are conservatives and Republicans.

Saying he believes Republicans can win the White House in 2016 “with a hopeful, optimistic message,” former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush came out in defense of the PATRIOT Act, currently under debate in Congress, according to Knox News: -snip- Bush also seemed to prod the GOP, if not conservatives, for presumably not being inclusive enough — saying the GOP can win only “if they reach out to everybody in our country, not just those that have already decided that they are conservatives and Republicans.”

Sunday on CBS’s “Face The Nation,” potential Republican presidential candidate former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-FL) said even though his pro-immigration stance is at odds with the Republican Party base, he is “not going to back down.” Bush said, “I’m not going to back down on views on immigration, for example. I think we have immigration problem. It’s a system that’s broken. The legal system is broken. We need to narrow family petitioning expand economic immigrants. We need to enforce the law. We can’t use this, keep having this be political issue when we’re missing opportunity to create growth that everybody...

Former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-Fla.) in an interview broadcast Sunday fired back at campaign watchdog groups who accuse the potential 2016 candidate of violating election law. Bush said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” the he “would never” violate the law. “No, of course not,” he said. “And I'm nearing the end of this journey of traveling and listening to people, garnering, trying to get a sense of whether my candidacy would be viable or not. We're going to completely adhere to the law, for sure,” he said.

This week, Jeb Bush ramped up his rhetoric on immigration reform -- against Republicans. In a closed-to-the-media phone call with Alabama Republicans (except for The Washington Post's Ed O'Keefe, who got access), the former Florida governor knocked his 2016 GOP competitors for bending "with the wind" on immigration reform. Immigration reform has been a tricky subject for many Republicans to broach. There's a wide gap on the issue between the constituency they want to reach in the general election (Hispanics) and the constituency they need to win the GOP nomination (conservatives). And Bush is right: It can take a lot...

David Axelrod: Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush can reach into Hispanic community; Rand Paul a ‘wild card’ David Axelrod, one of the chief strategists for President Obama’s 2008 election and 2012 re-election campaigns, said Friday that Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush stand out in the 2016 GOP field because of their ability to make inroads with Latinos. Mr. Axelrod was asked on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” if he were advising former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential frontrunner, which Republican candidates or potential candidates scare him the most. “I would say Rubio...

Since he first hit the trail for his presidential campaign-in-waiting, Jeb Bush has repeated this line at event after event: “There are a whole lot of conservatives, they just don’t know it yet.” On Thursday, the former Florida governor hinted at how he might reach those conservatives. At two separate events in Michigan, Mr. Bush urged Republicans to deviate from the traditional events (perhaps like the Lincoln Day Dinner he was speaking at on Friday night), and try something new. At the event Thursday at Eagle Eye Golf Club, he pledged to “campaign in places where Republicans haven’t been seen...

A recent report reveals Republican presidential hopeful and brother of former president George W. Bush, Jeb Bush, backed a path to legalized citizenship for undocumented immigrants in 2009. Bush, who has not yet announced his intention to run in 2016, is one of the most forward-looking Republicans concerning the issue of immigration reform. However, he still needs to appeal to a Republican base wary of anything that may hint at "amnesty," in their eyes. Bush has treaded carefully, phrasing his support for reform as one that includes "earned" legal status. However, Buzzfeed News uncovered a 2009 letter in which the...

Bush co-chaired a Council on Foreign Relations task force that recommended a slate of policies on immigration to then Labor Secretary Hilda Solis. In 2009, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush sent a letter to Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis advocating an immigration plan developed by the Council on Foreign Relations. That report included in its recommendations an earned pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Bush was one of two co-chairs of the bipartisan task force. The letter, signed by Bush, identifies “a program of earned legalization that offers an opportunity for many illegal immigrants to earn the right to remain...

He was born in Midland, Texas, and he spent a good bit of his boyhood in Houston, and he went to high school in Andover, Massachusetts, and to college in Austin, Texas, and he has lived for the last three and a half decades in Miami. But at the top of the list of the most important places in the world in the life of Jeb Bush is the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, and its conservative, old-world Catholic capital of León. León is why he proposed marriage in Spanish, why his three children are Mexican-American, why his favorite foods...

Her husband isn’t officially running, but Columba Bush is already driving with a Spanish-language bumper sticker supporting the former Florida governor for the White House in 2016. The Daily Mail grabbed photos this week of Columba entering and exiting a green Mini Cooper in Coral Gables, Fla., with an orange "Viva Jeb! Presidente 2016" sticker. The sticker is next to another for their son, George P. Bush, from his successful bid for Texas Land Commissioner last year.

Few political spouses in recent memory have been as wary of the spotlight as Columba Bush, Jeb's wife of 41 years. But her husband's presidential potential means the spotlight is about to find her. Now and then in an otherwise unmemorable speech, Jeb Bush will drop a mention of his wife, like a sudden pop of color. At an event in Nevada this March, one of his first speeches of this campaign season, before a crowd of what The Washington Post called “everyday Americans,” Bush opened with a husband-still-in-thrall routine. His life, he said, can be divided into two parts:...

“Clinton Cash” author Peter Schweizer said that he is ” finding some interesting, compelling things” in his investigation of Jeb Bush on Tuesday’s “Hugh Hewitt Show.” Schweizer reported, “We’re about four months into the research project, obviously not as global in scope as the Clintons, but you know, as governor of the state of Florida, you have a lot of things that you can do. So we’re following the money. We’re looking at land deals. We’re looking at an airport deal. We are looking at some of the educational reforms that were instituted, and some of the big corporate winners...

In a sign of Jeb Bush’s broad Hispanic outreach, his intensely private wife, Columba Bush, slowly started to raise her profile Friday by opening her own Twitter and Instagram accounts. Columba Bush, using the handle @ColumbaBush, plans to reach out in English and Spanish to various segments of the nation’s Latino community, which has one of the highest rates of social-media use in the nation. -snip- “This is a really important first step. It’s beyond dispute that Hispanic voters are more and more important in each election, and we need to capture at least 40 percent of that vote,” said...

Jeb Bush stumbled over questions about the Iraq War this week, unnerving some congressional Republicans who wonder if he has what it takes to win the White House. Steadfast allies to the former Florida governor say Bush is just a bit rusty and insist the gaffes won’t be debilitating ahead of his expected campaign for the 2016 GOP nomination. But others on Capitol Hill were scratching their heads as Bush struggled during four consecutive news cycles to articulate his position on the unpopular war that defined the presidency of his older brother, George W. Bush. “[I’m] flabbergasted at the degree...

Jeb Bush will have learned from this week's firestorm over his Iraq War comments, says Karl Rove, the Republican strategist who helped steer his brother to the White House. "He's a very smart guy. He's not a guy who needs the lesson taught to him twice," Rove told TODAY's Savannah Guthrie on Friday. -snip- Rove said he hasn't endorsed Bush — or any of the other Republican candidates who have formally declared their presidential bid. The the strategist said he was months away from making his decision. "I want everybody to get in as a candidate and then start showing...

Jeb Bush has taken three attempts at answering the following question: "Knowing what we know now, would you have authorized the invasion of Iraq?" Here are my three translations of his answers: First attempt: Of course, I would bring about the same disaster for my nation and several others. Did you think I was going to disrespect my brother? Second attempt: Well, I don't know what I would have done about Iraq. Hypotheticals only tell us that we can't really know anything for sure. Did you really think I was going to disrespect the laws of logic and epistemology? Third...