PALM BEACH, Fla. — Jeb Bush began an outreach to conservatives here Thursday night with an address to the Club for Growth, an advocacy group that has long antagonized the Republican Party establishment, including at times his brother, former president George W. Bush.
From here, the likely 2016 presidential candidate will wade into the proverbial lion’s den Friday when he speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual speechmaking festival that draws thousands of conservative activists to National Harbor outside of Washington.
After two bustling months spent shoring up his natural areas of strength — raising a mountain of cash from the GOP’s monied class, recruiting seasoned policy experts and political operatives, and charming old-guard opinion-makers — Bush is stepping into a new and potentially more perilous phase of his expected candidacy.
He is trying to reassure skeptical conservatives that he really is one of them — and that he will not disappoint them on issues like many past presidents and nominees, including his brother and father, former president George H.W. Bush.
Over dinner Thursday at The Breakers, an iconic luxury resort on Palm Beach, Bush was to address a few hundred wealthy fiscally conservative ideologues gathered for the winter meeting of the Club for Growth, which focuses its advocacy on lowering taxes and shrinking government.
The annual Conservative Political Action Conference is at the National Harbor, as conservative students and activists hear from 2016 hopefuls. Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at the sights and sounds of CPAC 2015. (Julie Percha/The Washington Post)
The next day at CPAC, Bush will field questions and engage with the crowd in a 20-minute session moderated by Fox News personality Sean Hannity.
Perhaps anticipating a less-than-hospitable reception, Bush associates are organizing to fill the crowd with familiar faces by helping transport longtime Bush family loyalists from downtown Washington to the convention hall at National Harbor, according to organizing details provided in e-mails obtained by The Washington Post.
Other CPAC attendees are organizing a show of force of their own to embarrass Bush. William Temple, 64, a tea party activist from Georgia, said he plans to lead a demonstration against Bush by waving a yellow Gadsden flag — the “Don’t Tread on Me” tea party banner — and calling on conservatives to walk out during Bush’s speech.
“We’re going to stand up, turn around, kick the dust off my feet, raise my flag, and walk out,” said Temple, who is well known for attending national conservative meetings in Revolution-era garb. “We’re going to have several hundred people. I don’t know how many more. . . . We’re going to make it clear to him that CPAC should not be inviting people who do not share our values.”
Matthew A. Schlapp, the chairman of the American Conservative Union, which hosts CPAC, said he was unaware of plans to walk out on Bush.
“I think most people in this audience appreciate the tier-one candidates here,” Schlapp said. “This is also a democratic process, and these people have a right to express their views in any way they can.”
Conservatives are looking for Bush to ease their concerns about his stances on education, immigration and taxes, in particular. They will want to be reassured that he would not govern like his father or brother and are eager to see whether he would be comfortable as a conservative standard-bearer.
This year marks the sixth CPAC for William Temple, a tea party activist from Georgia. Dressed in 1770s German and Scottish war garb and waving a giant “Don’t Tread on Me” flag, Temple discusses his plans to lead a walk-out during former Gov. Jeb Bush’s speech on Friday. (Julie Percha/The Washington Post)
The timing is critical for Bush, 62, whose all-but-certain candidacy has attracted legions of financiers and supporters this winter. Despite his fast start, Bush is not outpacing the rest of the GOP field in early polls. Some likely rivals — particularly Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker — are gaining traction among conservative activists as they begin to travel ahead of next year’s primaries and caucuses.
Walker is beloved among conservatives for his aggressive approach in Democratic-leaning Wisconsin. Many have rallied around him in recent weeks as he has batted away questions from the news media about whether he believes in evolution or whether President Obama is a Christian.
A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday showed Walker leading among Republicans in Iowa, with Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), Maryland neurosurgeon Ben Carson and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee all placing ahead of Bush.
Rather than mingling with friendly donors at receptions, as Bush has for the past couple of months, he will be asked Friday to address students and conservative hard-liners who have been known to boo speakers associated with the Republican Party’s elite.
“You give him credit for facing his critics and getting out of the bubble of fundraisers and policy speeches,” said Kellyanne Conway, who is managing CPAC’s straw poll. “I don’t think he’s necessarily entering hostile territory, but it’s a less natural habitat for him.”
Carefully watching will be handicappers in the Republican donor and consultant worlds, who will measure how far Bush goes to ingratiate himself with conservatives and whether he is still willing, as he said months ago, to “lose the primary to win the general.”
The last time Bush spoke at CPAC, in 2013, he delivered a blunt talk — an unwelcome lecture, in the view of many — about the problems with the Republican Party.
“All too often we’re associated with being ‘anti’ everything,” Bush said. “Way too many people believe Republicans are anti-immigrant, anti-woman, anti-science, anti-gay, anti-worker, and the list goes on.”
Bush allies say he has a dual mission: gently walking the party’s base through his conservative views, and sparking a connection by speaking vividly about his record in Florida on social and economic issues.
“This is the first time Jeb’s at CPAC as a potential national candidate. He hasn’t been in elected office in almost 10 years. He needs to reintroduce himself to the conservative base,” Bush confidant Ana Navarro wrote in an e-mail. “Many of them are not familiar with or have forgotten his record. He needs to offer a refresher course.”
Multitudes on the right are already wary of Bush’s support for bipartisan immigration reform, his refusal to take an anti-tax pledge, and his enthusiasm for Common Core, a national education curriculum that tea party leaders vehemently oppose.
Reiterating that he is his “own man,” as Bush did in a speech last week in Chicago on foreign affairs, is another priority. Some conservatives soured on his father and brother, and are fatigued by the prospect of nominating another member of the family.
Anti-tax activist Grover Norquist said: “Dad said he’d never raise taxes and did. Unlike his brother, Jeb has declined to take the pledge and done little to make conservatives confident he wouldn’t. I find that approach oddly aristocratic. He’ll have to explain himself.”
Costa reported from Washington.
Philip Rucker is a national political correspondent for The Washington Post, where he has reported since 2005.
Robert Costa is a national political reporter at The Washington Post.
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