During the 2016 election, poor Jeb Bush was not having a great time.
Hailing from the Bush dynasty, there was a real fear at the beginning of the election cycle that Jeb would find himself anointed as the next Republican nominee, possibly by name alone.
But Jeb was famously awkward on the campaign trail, giving off the impression of a man half-hearted in nearly everything he did, and prohibitively strange at times. A viral moment of Jeb asking an audience to “please clap” comes to mind.
Here's Jeb Bush asking an audience in New Hampshire to "please clap": https://t.co/xiaOYIufy0 @shiftmsnbc pic.twitter.com/x0Uc5Fl8gr
— NTA by Mic (@NavigatingTrump) February 3, 2016
Jeb was beaten to the nomination by eventual President Donald Trump, and the two manifested a heated rivalry on the way to that particular political destination.
Now it appears as though some of Jeb’s former team are working to stymy Trump again.
Former consultants for failed Republican presidential primary candidate Jeb Bush are now working with a “Never Trump”-associated group to help Democrat Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris win the swing state of Florida.
The group “Republican Voters Against Trump,” funded by Never Trump’s Bill Kristol, Sarah Longwell, and Tim Miller, is spearheading an initiative to flip Florida blue this election cycle. The group has tapped former Bush consultants Mike Murphy and David Hill to help elect Biden.
The kitschy group was in powerful company, and even had a blatantly tacky mission name:
The former Bush consultants and Never Trump group have branded the effort “Project Orange Crush,” spending between $8 million to $10 million in the next couple of months on advertising targeted to moderate Republican voters and swing voters.
“Our plan is to surgically target the key 450,000 Independents and soft Republicans who will decide the election,” a memo obtained by the Herald reads.
The former Bush consultants’ involvement in helping to elect Biden comes as hundreds of former staffers for Mitt Romney, John McCain, and George W. Bush have signed onto initiatives to defeat Trump in the November 3 election.
President Trump has been in the driver’s seat of the GOP for some time, however, with very few of these defecting speed bumps even so much as jostling him.
