http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/02/24/jeb-bush-apologizes-to-donors-for-failure-of-his-campaign/4:34 pm ET By Ashley Parker
Jeb Bush Apologizes to Donors for Failure of His Campaign
A tired-sounding Jeb Bush apologized to his major financial backers in a brief conference call on Wednesday afternoon, saying he never expected his presidential campaign to end so early, and in such disappointment.
“I’m sorry that it didn’t turn out the way that I intended,” Mr. Bush said, according to an audio recording of the call. “When I launched the campaign in front of three or four thousand people in Miami, I anticipated a different result.”
Mr. Bush, who dropped out of the presidential contest on Saturday night after a disappointing fourth-place finish in the South Carolina primary, acknowledged the unforeseen dynamic of the 2016 cycle, which featured an angry, frustrated electorate and a colorful cast of candidates.
“The reality was that you had a year of disruption, a year of outsiders making a compelling case to people who were deeply disaffected and angry, and I just didn’t get the breakthrough that I needed in the early states and felt it was important to not move on without a clear path to winning,” he said.
But, he added, he hoped that the nation would ultimately elect a like-minded Republican — though he did not name any of his rivals. “My hope is that a conservative will win the nomination and that he will go on to win the presidency, for our country’s sake, and I intend to do whatever I can to make that happen, now as a private citizen,” he said.
The former governor of Florida said that since returning home to Miami with his wife, he had visited the gym and was “sleeping really well.”
“I was amazed at the press coverage of the campaign and the lack of reality, to at least how I felt the campaign was,” he said. “For me it was an incredible joy, an incredible honor and privilege to be a candidate for president.”
And, he apologized again. “It was an amazing group of people,” Mr. Bush said. “I’m sorry it didn’t work out as I said.”
