Former President George W. Bush will not endorse any candidate ahead of the 2024 presidential election while his former vice president Dick Cheney publicly threw his support behind Kamala Harris. “No,” Bush and his wife Laura answered when asked if they were endorsing anyone for the White House race on Nov.
5, according to NBC News. “President Bush retired from presidential politics years ago.” The former Republican president’s refusal to endorse anyone in the upcoming election follows a similar trend he used in the previous two races.
In the 2016 election, Bush voted straight Republican on the ticket but left the presidential line empty — opting not to vote for either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. During Trump’s first reelection bid in 2020, Bush didn’t cast a vote for either Trump or President Joe Biden. He wrote in Condoleezza Rice’s name, his former secretary of state who served in his administration from 2005 to 2009.
Bush shared the shocking revelation during an interview with People in 2021 , saying he told Rice of his endorsement. “She knows it,” Bush told the outlet. “But she told me she would refuse to accept the office.
” In the first two elections after leaving the White House, Bush endorsed both Republican candidates, John McCain and Mitt Romney in 2008 and 2012 respectively, both whom lost to Barack Obama. Bush’s silent presidential preferences comes after his former running mate and vice president, Dick Cheney endorsed the Democrat.