Latest member of Bush political family takes office in Texas

[January 03, 2015]  By Jon Herskovitz
 
 AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - George P. Bush was sworn in on Friday as Texas land commissioner with his father and potential Republican White House candidate Jeb Bush by his side and his grandfather, former U.S. President George H.W. Bush, watching on the Internet.

The 38-year-old Bush, an attorney and founder of a Fort Worth-based investment firm, one-upped his relatives when in November he became the first person in the political dynasty to win in his first major election.

In his new post, Bush, a Republican, will look over public lands in the massive state and manage the Alamo in San Antonio, the scene of the famed battle for Texas independence from Mexico.

"By utilizing the agency's platform to promote opportunity for all, we will pursue a philosophy that Lincoln called the ‘right to rise.’ After all, every Texan deserves every chance at a better future," Bush said in a speech.

The son of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and his Mexican-born wife, Columba, Bush is seen by analysts as having a bright political future because he is a Hispanic-American in a Republican Party that wants to appeal to the growing and increasingly influential electorate of Latino voters.

Former President George H.W. Bush, 90, was released from a Houston hospital on Tuesday after a weeklong stay brought on by breathing difficulties and could not attend the ceremony at the statehouse in Austin. He watched the ceremony at home, officials from George P. Bush's office said.

The other former president in the family, the commissioner's uncle George W. Bush, did not attend the swearing-in ceremony.

(Additional reporting by Marice Richter in Dallas; Editing by Jon Herskovitz and Mohammad Zargham)

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