Free Republic

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.

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...

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...

Jeb Bush felt the welcoming embrace of Miami on Monday as he tried to put behind him a difficult week of campaigning without yet being a presidential candidate. His political action committee, Right to Rise, held a political fund-raiser in the overwhelmingly Hispanic, working-class suburb of Sweetwater, where the former Florida Republican governor was greeted as a old friend in need of a little TLC. "Aquí está la vieja guardia -- no tan vieja," Bush joked in Spanish after being introduced by former U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart.

“Either a path to citizenship, which I would support and that does put me probably out of the mainstream of most conservatives; Or a path to legalization, a path to residency of some kind…” Bush told Charlie Rose in 2012. During an appearance on “The Kelly File” on Monday, Jeb Bush disagreed with Megyn Kelly when she pointed out that, in the past, he had supported a path to citizenship (though he then went onto say he’d be open to it as part of a “compromise”). Kelly questioned the former governor of Florida about his past positions on immigration, specifically...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush rejects the popular notion that his support for a path to legal status for some undocumented immigrants is a surefire way to doom his shot at being the GOP presidential nominee. In an extensive interview with Fox News host Megyn Kelly that is scheduled to air Monday night, Bush – who has strongly suggested he is moving toward announcing a run for the White House, but has yet to do so – said he believes that undocumented immigrants brought to the country as minors should be able to legalize their status.

Jeb Bush said in an interview that he would not immediately move to repeal President Obama’s executive order on immigration — suggesting he would instead wait for a new law to be passed addressing the matter. In an interview with Megyn Kelly that is to be shown Monday night on Fox News, Mr. Bush said that rather than overturning the order, he believed in “passing meaningful reform of immigration and make it part of it.” The president’s executive order seeks to shield millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation. Most presidential candidates in the Republican field either oppose Mr. Obama’s order...

Jeb Bush defends his stance on immigration in an interview that airs tonight on Fox News, contending that "a lot of people can be persuaded" to support a rewriting of laws that would allow for legal status. "I think illegal immigration ought to be punished by coming out from the shadows, earning legal status over an extended period of time where you pay a fine, where you work, where you don’t receive government assistance, where you learn English, where you don’t -- you know, you’re where deported if you commit a crime as is the law," Bush said in an...

In an interview with Fox News host Megyn Kelly, Jeb Bush spoke out about his position on immigration reform, saying he believes some in the GOP base "can be persuaded" on the subject. In the growing field of official and prospective Republican candidates for the 2016 presidential elections, Jeb Bush currently stands out the most for his views on immigration reform, which could be described as closer to Hilary Clinton's position than many of his GOP rivals. As we previously reported, Bush believes in a path to "earned legal status" for the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S....

In the 2016 presidential race, former Florida governor Jeb Bush is generally seen as the favorite of establishment Republicans – which is not necessarily a good thing if you want to make it through the GOP’s primary and caucus season successfully. There, more outspoken hopefuls hammer issues like immigration, foreign terrorism, the economy, and same-sex marriage with a heavier, tea partyish hammer. At the South Carolina Freedom Summit over the weekend, the rest of the pack – just about everybody but Mr. Bush – talked tough on defense and foreign affairs.

The man at the microphone spoke in a language most Republican presidential primary voters do not understand. "You are part of the new wave of hope for this country," Jeb Bush said in fluent Spanish to the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference this week. Switching to English, he said the U.S. needs immigrants for the country "to become young and dynamic again." It doesn't seem to matter that Hispanic voters typically do not have much say in Republican primaries. The former Florida governor's play to Hispanic values and policy goals has begun to shape his young political operation. Well before...

A feisty Jeb Bush gave a full-throated defense of his immigration stance in front of a Washington audience on Thursday, laying out the economic case that reforms he champions could return the nation to prosperity. Bush took a swipe at Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a likely opponent against Bush for the Republican presidential nomination next year, for saying that he favors limiting legal immigration to the U.S. as a means of preserving jobs in the nation for current citizens. “I don’t think it’s a zero-sum game,” the former Florida goveror said in a question-and-answer session at the National Review Ideas...

Presumed presidential candidate Jeb Bush’s strong support of immigration reform, including a pathway to an “earned legal status” for the estimated 11 million illegal aliens in the country, did not sit well with conservative radio talk show host Mark Levin. Speaking before the National Christian Hispanic Leadership Conference in Houston on Wednesday, the former Florida governor said fixing our broken immigration system means not only “controlling the border” and “making legal immigration easier,” but also “dealing with the 11 million undocumented workers who are here in this country, 11 million people that should come out of the shadows and receive...

If National Review editor Rich Lowry was looking for compromise on immigration from Republican Jeb Bush, he’s still looking. According to NR, Bush “and Lowry tussled over immigration policy and tax pledges.” Jeb wasn’t even willing to take the seemingly easy out of opting to secure the border first. One is left to wonder what the unemployed, “younger, more dynamic people” of Baltimore and other areas might think of Jeb’s reasoning.

Prospective Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush clashed with National Review editor-in-chief Rich Lowry over immigration policy on Thursday, telling Lowry “I love you. I just think you’re wrong on immigration.” -snip- “This isn’t a zero-sum game,” Bush said, taking issue with Wisconsin governor Scott Walker’s contention that an immigration policy should, first and foremost, be based on protecting American workers and American wages. “[If] you want to grow at 4 percent instead of 2 percent per year, you need younger, more dynamic people inside of our economy to get to 4 percent growth,” he said. “You can’t do it with...

In the Republican presidential field, Jeb Bush appears more and more to be a moderate outlier—not necessarily because he is changing his views, but because so many of his potential competitors are racing each other to the right. This dynamic was on full display on Thursday, when the former Florida governor spoke at a summit hosted by National Review, where Sen. Marco Rubio, Gov. Bobby Jindal, and Gov. John Kasich will speak on Friday. In an interview with Rich Lowry, Bush held fast on his immigration record, and argued that it is better to narrow access to citizenship to spouses...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush declared Wednesday that 11 million immigrants in the country illegally should have an opportunity to stay, wading yet again into his party's contentious immigrant debate. In tone and substance, Bush stands out among the many Republicans lining up for the GOP's next presidential primary, where conservatives who oppose an immigration overhaul often hold outsized influence. As he moves toward a presidential campaign, the brother and son of former presidents has not backed away from his defense of immigrants in the country illegally and a policy that would allow them to attain legal status under certain...

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush forcefully advocated for an immigration reform plan that includes a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants during a speech Wednesday to a Hispanic faith-based group in Houston. And he showed off his Spanish speaking skills while he was at it.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush declared Wednesday that 11 million immigrants in the country illegally should have an opportunity to stay, wading yet again into his party's contentious immigrant debate. In tone and substance, Bush stands out among the many Republicans lining up for the GOP's next presidential primary, where conservatives who oppose an immigration overhaul often hold outsized influence. As he moves toward a presidential campaign, the brother and son of former presidents has not backed away from his defense of immigrants in the country illegally and a policy that would allow them to attain legal status under certain...