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'Subtle, Subtle' Racism: Why Jeb Bush Moved To Miami

World Affairs Council of Philadelphia/Flickr

New York Magazinepublished a great profile of Florida's former governor and current Miamian Jeb Bush this week.

The profile tackled some pretty big topics about Bush, who has stayed mostly out of the limelight since he finished his term as Florida's governor in 2007. The article mentioned how Jeb's connections to the Hispanic community might make him the greatest hope for the future of the GOP and why he didn't run in 2012.

However, one of the snippets of this feature that most stuck out was a story about why Bush moved to Miami in the first place.

According to Joe Hagen in NY Mag,

After the Reagan-Bush ticket won the White House, Jeb moved from the family seat in Texas to make his way in Florida. The reason he left would define him politically and personally: His wife, Columba, known as Colu, had experienced racism among their white, Republican circles in Houston. When I ask Bush about this, he acknowledges that it happened. “Subtle, subtle,” he says. “It’s very different now, very welcoming, very open, particularly the big open areas.” Colu gave Jeb an ultimatum: They could either move back to Mexico or to Miami, where her sister lived. He was happy to leave, says a close associate, because “he didn’t want to be another Bush in Texas.”

It's common knowledge that Bush moved with his wife to Miami after the 1980 presidential election, but it's not widely-known why he left Texas.

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