Jeb Bush’s presidential campaign is on life support. His poll numbers have been steadily declining for months, his debate performances have been tepid and his donors are abandoning him, mostly for his one-time protege Marco Rubio. But now Bush is revealing a more vulnerable side, and it may be just what his campaign needs to get back on track.
Bush shared his family’s struggles with drug addiction on Tuesday at a forum on heroin addiction at Southern New Hampshire University.
According to a New York Times account of the forum, Jeb spoke about his daughter Noelle’s drug addiction. Noelle, 38, faced felony charges for trying to fill a fraudulent prescription for Xanax in her 20s. She was jailed when found with pills and crack cocaine in her shoes. According to the Times, she is now in recovery.
“What I learned was that the pain that you feel when you have a loved one who has addiction challenges and kind of spirals out of control is something that is shared with a whole lot of people,” Jeb told roughly 100 forum attendees, many current and former addicts.
He also spoke about the joy of seeing her complete the Florida drug court program, and about how seeing his daughter suffer made him realize the difficulty millions of Americans experience. Jeb has also written emotionally about Noelle on Medium.com, where he recounted his feelings about seeing her in jail. After his personal testimony, Bush outlined his drug control agenda. Four other GOP presidential candidates spoke at the forum.
Voters seem to value vulnerability and resiliency in a president. Going back at least a century, most U.S. presidents have had to overcome significant adversity to rise to the highest office. They’ve overcome disability, abject poverty, family hardship, profound personal tragedies and humiliating public failures — only to emerge stronger.
Think of Jimmy Carter the humble peanut farmer, George W. Bush the alcoholic and Barack Obama the abandoned son. Obama doesn’t get personal or emote very often, but when he does, it can be powerful, as with the tears he shed in speaking about gun violence earlier this week.
In contrast to W, Jeb doesn’t have an obvious vulnerable side. Jeb was always the favorite son, the heir apparent who was destined for the presidency. In some ways, Jeb can be compared to that other child of privilege, Mitt Romney, a candidate to whom voters couldn’t relate in part because he seemingly hadn’t ever experienced real suffering, loss or failure.
Voters don’t want their political leaders—especially their presidents—to be dominated by such things. But even a small show of vulnerability can elicit admiration and respect for leaders who can relate to them.
Perhaps that’s already happening. The Times reporter notes that Bush’s comments at the New Hampshire forum “seemed to resonate with attendees.” She quoted one who said Bush enhanced his credibility with voters by “telling personal stories about recovery, which always makes a difference.”
Daniel Allott is deputy commentary editor for the Washington Examiner
