By Rebecca Morin
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The possibility of a third Bush in the White House came to an end on the evening of Feb. 20.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush ended his 2016 presidential campaign following preliminary primary results in South Carolina.
“The people of Iowa, and New Hampshire, and South Carolina have spoken, and I respect their decision,” Bush said at his watch party in Columbia, South Carolina, which was followed by a “No” from the crowd after announcing he will suspend his campaign.
“I truly hope that these ideas we have laid out serve as a blueprint for a generation of conservative leaders at every level of government,” Bush said.
National GOP frontrunner Donald Trump won the South Carolina primary with 32.5 percent, winning all 50 delegates in the state.
In the three early primary and caucus states, Bush has failed to break into the top-three-candidate tier.
In Iowa, Bush came in sixth with 2.8 percent of support from caucus-attendees. The 63-year-old came in fourth in the New Hampshire primary. He held the fourth place spot in the South Carolina primary with 7.8 percent.
Bush, the son of former President George H. W. Bush and brother of former President George W. Bush, was once considered a shoo-in to become the GOP presidential nominee.
However, in an aggregation of national polling from Real Clear Politics, Bush was at the bottom of the remaining six major Republican presidential candidates with 5.4 percent.
Throughout the campaign Bush was faced with the reality of his family name — both in the support and the lack there of.
Bush was faced with questions about his foreign-policy points differing from his brother’s. Though he tried to maintain that he was his own man, he also tried to throw support for his brother.
Both his father and brother also won South Carolina during the race to the White House.
In addition to facing those challenges, Bush was also overshadowed by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who once considered Bush a mentor.
Rubio, the 44-year-old one-term senator, came in third during the Iowa caucuses, fifth in New Hampshire, and second in South Carolina. He has been regarded as the “establishment” candidate and has been backed by Republican officials such as South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
Bush ended his campaign after raising more than $118 million through his super PAC and roughly $31 million through his campaign, according to the latest financial filings.
Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, said in a Facebook post that Bush “followed his family’s pattern of putting country above himself.”
“It has been a campaign conducted in the finest tradition of dignity and integrity and Jeb Bush gave it his all: he can have no regrets. I am proud to call him a friend,” Romney continued in the post.