The 43rd president of the United States, George Walker Bush is an American businessman and politician. His father, George H. W. Bush, was the 41st president of the United States and remained in the office from 1989 till 1993. George W. Bush also served as Texas Governor from the year 1995 till 2000.
He is referred to as Bush Junior or Bush 43. So, he can be distinguished from his father. Some people think that the Bush family belongs to Texas. In reality, this president was born and raised in the East Coast area of Connecticut.
In this article, we’ve gathered some interesting and cool facts about the two-time president, which our readers should not have known about him.
George W. Bush: 10 interesting facts about this two-time president
1. He had the lowest approval ratings in the US
George W. Bush had the lower as well as the highest approval ratings in the history of the country. Soon after the September 11, 2001 attacks on World Trade Center and Pentagon, Bush’s approval rating stood at 90 percent, an interesting fact about George W. Bush. Ironically, after the 2008 presidential elections, his approval ratings reduced to 25 percent.
2. Bush is the only US President with an MBA degree
Initially, he applied to the University of Texas School of Law. Unfortunately, his application was rejected. After that, he applied to Harvard Business School in the year 1973 and took admission in Master of Business Admission program. He completed his MBA degree in 1975. This makes him the only US President to have earned an MBA degree.
3. He is two-time Governor of Texas State
In 1994, he contested the Texas gubernatorial election and was elected Governor of Texas State. In the same year, Bush’s brother, Jeb, participated in the election for Florida governorship. Bush focused on four areas during his campaign, education, law and order and welfare of the people. Karen Hughes, Karl Rove and Joe Allbaugh were his campaign advisers. George W. Bush easily won the primary, and in the final round, he won the election with 53.5 percent votes against his rival candidate, Ann Richards.
In the year 1998, he was re-elected with 69 percent votes in the election and became the first governor of Texas to be elected as governor for two consecutive terms.
4. George W. Bush won elections without the popular vote
An interesting fact about George W. Bush is among the 4 US presidents, who won the general elections, without the popular vote. Bush was the last among these presidents. According to records, this president received almost half a million fewer votes as compared to his rival candidate Al Gore way back in 2000. John Quincy Adams in 1824, Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876 and Benjamin Harrison in 1888, were the other 3 presidents to win the election without the popular vote.
5. Bush is the first US President to run a marathon
In the year 1993, George W. Bush participated in the Houston Marathon and finished in 3 hours and 44 minutes and 52 seconds. This made him the first US president to have participated in a marathon. At the time of this event, Bush was 46 years old.
6. He was a cheerleader at his university
The 43rd president of the United States was a cheerleader at his university. Former US presidents, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, and Dwight D. Eisenhower were also cheerleaders at their alma mater.
7. Bush was arrested at his university
This is something weird, but it cannot be denied that this president was arrested at his university. When he was studying at Yale University, Bush was arrested by the police on complaint of the university administration. He was charged for stealing a floral wreath meant for Christmas from a local hotel, a fun fact about George W. Bush. Luckily, he was cleared from the charges later on.
8. He ran for the House of Representatives
Way back in 1978, George W. Bush took part in Texas’ 19ths congressional district for the US House of Representatives. His rival candidate was Kent Hance, who portrayed him among the people as oblivious from problems of the people belonging to rural Texas. As a result of this, Bush lost the election, with 46.8 percent votes. Meanwhile, Hance secured 53.2 percent votes in elections.
In 1988, Bush moved along with his family to Washington DC, where he actively took part in the election campaign of his father. He helped his father in the election drive across the country. In the winter of 1991, George H. W. Bush named him among those 7 people, who were to launch his re-election presidential campaign in 1992. During the re-election campaign, he was to perform as a campaign advisor.
9. He owned Texas Rangers Baseball Team
Bush was interested in purchasing controlling shares in the Texas Rangers baseball team. For this, in April 1989, he invested $0.5 million in the team and was appointed as its managing general partner. He continued to serve in this position for five years. During this tenure, he used to support the team by sitting with the crowd and regularly attended all the matches. In 1998, he sold all his shares and earned over around $15 million, an interesting George W. Bush fact. He only invested $800,000 in the team.
10. He married Laura Welch
Initially, George W. Bush was engaged with Cathryn Lee Wolfman in the year 1967. The engagement didn’t last long, and the two of them remained good friends after the end of the relationship. His friends introduced him to Laura Welch, who was a librarian and a school teacher. Bush developed good relations with Laura, and they two married on November 5 in 1977. Soon after marrying Laura, Bush left the Episcopal Church and joined Laura’s United Methodist Church. Laura gave birth to fraternal twin daughters, Jenna and Barbara.
Conclusion
After the end of his second tenure, he settled with his family in Dallas Texas, where he purchased a home. Bush has chosen to do oil painting and book writing. He wrote and published a book entitled Portraits of Courage, A Commander in Chief’s Tribute to America’s Warriors in the spring of 2017. This two-time president also looks over his family business and spends time at his ranch in Texas.
I hope that this article on George W. Bush facts was helpful. If you are interested, visit the Historical People Facts Page!
