Bush Family Member Attacks Trump and Snubs His MAGA Pick Paxton

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images A member of the Bush political dynasty has launched a devastating attack on Donald Trump—and crossed party lines to vote against his scandal-hit handpicked Senate candidate.

Neil Bush, 71, the younger brother of former President George W.

Bush and son of former President George H.W.

Bush, revealed late Tuesday that he had voted for Democrat James Talarico rather than Trump-backed Republican Ken Paxton in the fiercely contested Texas Senate race.

The extraordinary intervention saw Bush condemn Trump’s “enormous damage” to the GOP—and accuse Paxton of attempting to help the president overturn the 2020 election.

“I have been a Republican for most of my life, and I still believe deeply in many traditional Republican principles,” Bush wrote in a lengthy but measured Facebook post .

“But character matters more than party affiliation.” He’s the second member of the Bush family to back Talarico, after George W.

Bush’s daughter, Barbara, was revealed to have made a $2,500 donation to the Democrat’s campaign, The Bushes’ endorsement comes as Paxton, 63, struggles against an insurgent Talarico, 37, in what is likely to be a decisive battle as the GOP seeks to hold the Senate.

Neil Bush, who said he usually avoids making public political declarations on the social media site, explained that he had decided to break his silence because the stakes were so high in the Nov.

3 election.

“More broadly, I believe Donald Trump and those who have enabled him have done enormous damage to the Republican Party,” he wrote.

“I worry about a political culture in which loyalty to an individual takes precedence over loyalty to principle, and where those who hold power begin to believe they are no longer accountable.” The post was especially striking given the Bush family’s political history in Texas.

Bush previously lived directly across the street from his parents in Houston’s affluent Tanglewood area, according to a 2018 news report .

His father, who died in 2018, served as president from 1989 to 1993, while his brother occupied the White House from 2001 to 2009.