Jeb Bush told donors Wednesday afternoon that he had seen a path to victory “from the very beginning” of his campaign but was unexpectedly stymied by “outsiders making a compelling case to people who are deeply disaffected and angry.”
“I’m sorry that it didn’t turn out the way that I intended. When I launched the campaign in front of 3-4,000 people in Miami, I anticipated a different result,” an audibly disappointed Bush told donors on a national finance team call scheduled to thank them for their support.
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He also said he plans to “do whatever I can now as a private citizen” to help nominate a conservative that can win the White House.
Bush, who ended his campaign after finishing fourth in the South Carolina primary on Saturday, said the reality of the race was that “we’ve had a year of disruption, a year of outsiders making a compelling case to people who are deeply disaffected and angry.”
“And I just didn’t get the breakthrough that I needed in the early states and felt it was important to not move on without a clear path to winning,” he added.
Bush told donors he was “amazed at the press coverage of the campaign, and the lack of reality to how, at least, I felt the campaign was.”
From his perspective, Bush said, voters were more interested in policy substance and solutions than the horserace coverage of the primary.
“At least, the people I was hanging out with, they’re a lot more concerned about the student loan problem than they were about who was winning or who was losing. They were concerned about, how do we get…jobs back into our country, much more about that than they were about the latest insult in the campaign,” he said.
The former Florida governor told donors he took a few days off after ending his bid, got back in the gym and is “sleeping really well,” and that he and his wife are “blessed” to be back home in Miami.
But he hinted his return to politics — at least as a “private citizen,” for now — is imminent.
“My hope is that a conservative will win the nomination and that he will go onto win the presidency, for our country’s sake, and I intend to do whatever I can to make that happen now as a private citizen,” he said.









