Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Double Feature: The George Bushes
Though originally from Massachusetts, Republican George HW Bush, the senior, moved
his young family to west Texas in 1948, where he worked in the oil industry. By the 1960s
he had turned to politics, representing a Houston district in the House of Representatives
before he later became CIA director and Ronald Reagan's vice-president in 1981. He ran
and won one term as president in 1988.
His son George W Bush grew up in Midland and Houston. He'd worked on others' cam-
paigns, as a business owner in oil and gas exploration and production, and as managing
partner of the Texas Rangers baseball team, but he'd never held public office before win-
ning the Texas governorship in 1994 and again in 1998.
In January 2001, Bush, the junior, became only the second son in American history (after
John Quincy Adams in 1824) to follow his father to the White House. The election was a
bitterly contested one involving recounted votes in Florida and a landmark Supreme Court
case. In the end, although Al Gore received more popular votes than Bush, he lost by elect-
oral votes. Bush defied his critics by winning the presidency again in 2004.
