Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s took his longest trip to Iowa as a presidential candidate this week and the rigors of a nonstop presidential campaign may have begun to take their toll. In an interview with Iowa Public Radio published on Friday, Bush sought to describe the success his presidential campaign experienced in the Hawkeye State, but momentarily mistook his campaign for a super PAC supporting his candidacy.
“We have a great ground game that we’re working on. I’ve been told at least we have more people signed up in positions of leadership in the 99 counties and that we’re going at it,” Bush told IPR. “You build on your success. We just started to advertise — actually the Right to Rise PAC started to advertise, not our campaign. We’re doing all the campaign organization out of these two offices, we have good field staff, candidate gets better every time he gets out there, things are looking good.”
Bush also opened up more about his family while on the trail in Iowa this week. At a campaign stop in Muscatine this week, Bush said he thought his 2016 presidential campaign had improved his ailing father’s spirits.
“I noticed he’s not watching CSI re-runs anymore. He’s watching Fox, getting mad about people that attack me,” Bush said. “I feel like I’m making a contribution to keep him strong.”
The former governor also fondly recalled traveling with his brother Marvin to Iowa in 1979 to campaign for their father’s presidential campaign, and told IPR he had a “blast” back then. Asked to describe Iowa in two or three words today, Bush chose “nice and beautiful.”
“The idea — I hear it from time to time, as I come back as a candidate — ‘Iowa Nice,’ it still exists for the record,” he said. “People are very civil, very informed, thoughtful, polite, it’s a great place to campaign.”
Bush, who ranks sixth in the Washington Examiner‘s most recent presidential power rankings, also finishes sixth in RealClearPolitics’ average of Iowan polling.
