The Bush family didn’t look much like a future Texas political dynasty in 1973. Certainly, there was politics in the clan’s blood—Prescott, the patriarch, had been a United States senator from Connecticut. But his son, George, a Yankee transplant to Texas, had failed twice in Senate runs and had been forced to settle for two terms in the U.S. House. From there, he had been named ambassador to the United Nations and was then chair of the Republican National Committee—Washington, not Texas, was clearly his calling. And yet, decades later, one of his sons would become governor of the Lone Star State, another would become governor of Florida, and then a grandson would be elected land commissioner. A status akin to royalty had coalesced in Texas, and the family set up shop—twice—in the White House. Then, as a harsher style of politics gained favor, it all fell apart. Today, a future Bush dynasty looks even more unlikely than it did fifty years ago.
Explore this story in chart form here.
September 4, 1974
Power ranking: ▶ 30
George H. W. Bush is named to lead the U.S. diplomatic mission to China.
January 30, 1976
Power ranking: ▲ 40
George H. W. becomes director of the CIA.
November 7, 1978
Power ranking: ▼ 35
George W. Bush loses his first political race, for a seat in Texas’s nineteenth Congressional District.
May 1, 1979
Power ranking: ▲ 45
George H. W. announces his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination.
May 26, 1980
Power ranking: ▼ 40
George H. W. concedes the nomination to Ronald Reagan.
November 4, 1980
Power ranking: ▲ 70
As Reagan’s running mate, George H. W. is elected the nation’s forty-third vice president.
March 30, 1981
Power ranking: ▲ 75
George H. W.’s calm demeanor after an assassination attempt on Reagan impresses the president, bringing them closer.
November 6, 1984
Power ranking: ▲ 80
Reagan and George H. W. are reelected.
November 1986
Power ranking: ▼ 75
George H. W. is drawn into the burgeoning Iran-Contra scandal and will be dogged by the investigation for years.
August 18, 1988
Power ranking: ▲ 85
Bush is named the presidential nominee at the Republican convention, where he famously declares, “Read my lips: No new taxes.”
Fall 1988
Power ranking: ▼ 80
George H. W.’s campaign begins deploying the controversial “Willie Horton” ads, widely regarded as appealing to racial prejudice.
November 8, 1988
Power ranking: ▲ 95
George H. W. wins the presidential election.
December 2–3, 1989
Power ranking: ▲ 100
George H. W. and Mikhail Gorbachev pave the way for the reunification of Germany, bringing an apparent end to the Cold War.
November 5, 1990
Power ranking: ▼ 85
George H. W. signs a bill that raises taxes, angering many Republicans.
January 17, 1991
Power ranking: ▲ 100
George H. W. launches the first Gulf War, which pushes the Iraqi military out of Kuwait. His approval rating rises to 89 percent in March.
December 1991
Power ranking: ▶ 100
The Soviet Union collapses, and George H. W. is hailed for his deft response.
January 8, 1992
Power ranking: ▼ 90
George H. W. vomits on Japan’s prime minister.
November 3, 1992
Power ranking: ▼ 70
George H. W. loses reelection to Bill Clinton.
November 8, 1994
Power ranking: ▲ 75
George W. is elected governor of Texas; his brother Jeb Bush loses the election for governor of Florida.
November 3, 1998
Power ranking: ▲ 80
George W. is reelected governor of Texas; Jeb is elected governor of Florida.
August 3, 2000
Power ranking: ▲ 90
George W. is named the Republican nominee for president.
November 3, 2000
Power ranking: ▼ 85
News reports surface that George W. was arrested for driving while intoxicated in 1976.
December 12, 2000
Power ranking: ▲ 95
After a fiercely contested vote count, the Supreme Court hands George W. the presidency.
September 14, 2001
Power ranking: ▲ 100
George W. rallies the nation from Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks.
October 7, 2001
Power ranking: ▶ 100
The U.S. goes to war in Afghanistan.
March 19, 2003
Power ranking: ▶ 100
The U.S. goes to war in Iraq.
May 1, 2003
Power ranking: ▶ 100
“Mission Accomplished.”
April 2004
Power ranking: ▼ 80
The torture of inmates at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison is revealed, bringing global condemnation of the U.S.
November 2, 2004
Power ranking: ▲ 100
George W. is reelected president.
August 2005
Power ranking: ▼ 80
Hurricane Katrina devastates the Gulf Coast, and George W. is widely criticized for his diffident response.
November 9, 2006
Power ranking: ▼ 70
Democrats win control of Congress.
September 15, 2008
Power ranking: ▼ 60
Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy signals the onset of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
January 20, 2009
Power ranking: ▼ 45
George W. leaves office with underwater approval ratings.
April 25, 2013
Power ranking: ▼ 40
Barbara Bush says her son Jeb shouldn’t run for president: “We’ve had enough Bushes.”
November 4, 2014
Power ranking: ▲ 50
Jeb’s son George P. Bush is elected Texas land commissioner.
June 15, 2015
Power ranking: ▲ 60
Jeb enters the presidential race.
February 20, 2016
Power ranking: ▼ 45
Proving his mother right, Jeb ends his presidential campaign.
October 7, 2016
Power ranking: ▼ 40
Video footage is released of George H. W.’s nephew Billy Bush, a cohost of the Today show, laughing while Donald Trump utters the sentence “Grab ’em by the pussy.”
November 30, 2018
Power ranking: ▲ 65
Seven months after his wife’s death, George H. W. dies at 94 and is widely celebrated as a gentleman and accomplished statesman.
March 3, 2020
Power ranking: ▼ 50
George W.’s nephew Pierce Bush places third in the GOP primary for Texas’s twenty-second congressional district.
June 2, 2021
Power ranking: ▼ 40
George P. announces a run for Texas attorney general. His campaign promotes this Donald Trump quote: “This is the only Bush that likes me. . . . I like him.”
August 30, 2021
Power ranking: ▼ 35
The war in Afghanistan launched by George W. comes to an ignoble end.
May 18, 2022
Power ranking: ▼ 20
During a speech, George W. criticizes “the decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq—I mean of Ukraine.”
May 24, 2022
Power ranking: ▼ 15
George P. is trounced in the Republican primary for attorney general.
January 17, 2023
Power ranking: ▼ 5
George P. departs his land commissioner job, leaving no Bushes in public office and, for the first time in fifty years, no clear prospects for such.
This article originally appeared in the February 2023 issue of Texas Monthly with the headline “The Rise and Fall of the House of Bush.” Subscribe today.
Image credits: George H.W. speech: Lennox McLendon/AP; George H.W. and Reagan: Barry Thumma/AP; George W. with firefighter: Doug Mills/AP; Barbara: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty; George P.: Cooper Neill/The Washington Post via Getty
