Another member of the Bush family wants to go to Washington.
Pierce Bush, 33, grandson of President George H.W. Bush and nephew of President George W. Bush, filed to run in the Republican primary for Texas’s 22nd District.
Bush, a Houston-based CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters Lone Star, is the son of Neil Bush, a businessman and investor and one of five living children of the 41st president. Neil’s oldest brother, former Texas Gov. George W. Bush, served as president 2001-2009, entering the White House eight years after his father exited.
The 22nd District covers a largely suburban south-central portion of the greater Houston area. More than a dozen Republicans are already vying for the seat, from which GOP Rep. Pete Olson is retiring after the 2020 elections. The district, with a median annual income of $94,048, leans Republican but has been won occasionally by Democratic congressional candidates. President Trump won the district in 2016 over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton 52%-44%.
Pierce Bush announced his candidacy on Twitter on Monday through a video touting his nonprofit organization’s work and criticism of what he called his generation’s embrace of economic socialism.
“We face a very challenging time,” Bush said. “We are on the brink of losing a generation to an idea that socialism and free stuff are the answers to their future.”
Republican primary rivals include Greg Hill, an ex-Brazoria County court-at-law judge and former Pearland city councilman who was also a Border Patrol agent, and Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls.
The number of primary candidates will likely lead to a runoff for the Republican nomination between the top two finishers in the March 3 primary.
Bush previously considered launching a campaign in the nearby 7th Congressional District, a version of the seat held by his grandfather from 1967-1971. But the seat being vacated by Olson proved a more plausible political opening.
The race will, in a sense, how much appetite remains for political candidates from the Bush family. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush failed in his 2016 Republican presidential primary run, but his eldest son, George P. Bush, 43, is Texas land commissioner, first elected in 2014.
