LAS VEGAS — George P. Bush, son of Jeb Bush, took his first campaign trip for his father on Wednesday — to Nevada, underscoring the importance of the caucus state and planting a flag where his cowboy boots and belt play well.
Speaking inside Mundo Mexican restaurant on a 106-degree day, and flanked by aquamarine chairs, Bush avoided other Republicans and focused keenly on linking Hillary Clinton to the president.
"Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama think the government should decide your health care," Bush said. "My dad thinks you and your doctor should make your health care decisions. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama think the solutions are in Washington, D.C. My dad believes our problems are in Washington, D.C."
Bush, who holds elected office in Texas and is likely to be a top surrogate for his father, called on supporters to go to the caucuses and roll up their sleeves to work with him — and said the campaign will need 10,000 supporters in the caucus state.
Taking questions from supporters afterwards, Bush was confronted by a woman in a red, white, and blue American flag blouse named Bonnie McDaniel, who took issue with an answer his dad gave her about the trade deal a few weeks back when he visited the state. She said he told her she didn't need to worry about it because it hadn't been voted on yet.
"Is your dad going to continue to not tell us what's going on, and be like Hillary and Barack and keep us in the dark, wanting us to be stupid?" she asked Bush.
Seeming to not fully understand or hear her question, Bush said he was surprised his dad would be rude to her and moved on.
Jeb Bush has written in support of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Asian trade deal that Obama is negotiating that has become a source of significant intra-party contention for Democrats, and criticized Clinton for not backing free trade publicly.
After a couple other questions, the owner of Mundo restaurant, George Harris, took the microphone and said he did personal business with Jeb Bush and got turned down for the deal, and he didn't care, he was still at the event because Bush is a good man.
"Shame on you for saying he's not a good man," Harris said to McDaniel, also clearly not quite understanding what she had said.
Speaking to BuzzFeed News after the event, McDaniel, 69, who is retired but has a business card for her travel agency, which calls her a "master cruise counselor," said she has been a Las Vegas resident since 1960 and just wanted to ask him, "Is your dad going to tell us the truth?"
Besides the awkward interaction, the mood inside the restaurant, which bills itself as "a culinary haute spot" was celebratory.
Sandy Colón-Peltyn, the director of the Las Vegas Latin Chamber of Commerce said in Spanish that it was an honor to have George P. in their state. "It's an honor that you guys would take your first trip here after your father declared," she said, adding in English to the crowd, "Don't you think it's a privilege that the first trip the Bushes made is to Nevada?
Jeb Bush plans to make a major play for Latino voters in his campaign, which may not come into play early in the primary but could give him an advantage if he makes it to the general election. His son made the rounds on Wednesday: While in the state, Bush also met with Young Republicans and county Republicans in Reno, as well as a Republican Women luncheon there.
Mark Alden, the former regent of the University of Nevada, said he has known the Bush family for over three decades.
"Your dad knows more about higher ed than I do," Alden told Bush, adding that he admired his father's political style of "not attacking the opponent but attacking the policies," to applause from the crowd.
"What a great family," he concluded, before passing the microphone.
George P. Bush said during the last seven years Obama has taken the "country from the top of the world to a malaise — externally and internally," but running through his father's record as governor of Florida, he said that would change if he is elected.
It was clear that most in the crowd agreed.
After McDaniel's question, one man in the back of the crowd yelled, "All I have to say is good times are here again!"
