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US-USA-CAMPAIGN-BUSH:Factbox: Republican party convention speaker Jeb Bush
(Reuters) - Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush will deliver a closely watched speech at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, on Thursday.
Here are a few facts about Bush.
* A son of former President George H.W. Bush, Jeb Bush had been regarded as the Bush son likeliest to carry the family brand into the next generation. However, Jeb's brother George W. Bush fulfilled that role earlier, himself becoming the U.S. president in 2000. Jeb Bush became Florida governor in 1998.
* In 1994, Jeb Bush was running for governor in Florida while brother George was running for governor in Texas. Their parents flew to Miami on election night to celebrate Jeb's victory, but he lost by a narrow margin, and the parents had to dash to Austin, Texas, to mark George's victory.
* Bush, a fluent Spanish speaker whose wife, Columba, was born in Mexico, is one of the most vocal conservative advocates of greater cultural sensitivity toward immigrants. Jeb met Columba while teaching English in Leon, Mexico, and their three children were raised in a bilingual household.
* Bush made his biggest mark as governor in education policy, implementing a number of reforms with a conservative slant. He encouraged charter schools and signed a law that annually evaluated schools based on student test scores and appropriately rewarded them with state funds.
* Bush secured his bona fides with social conservatives in 2003 with his controversial order to reinsert the feeding tube of Terri Schiavo, a brain-injured woman who had spent years in a coma. Her family was divided on whether to keep her alive, but right-to-life activists pushed the matter all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
* In June, Bush took issue with his own party, saying Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush might not have been praised by Republicans today. After Democrats seized the comment as ammunition for President Barack Obama's re-election campaign, Bush clarified that his point was about hyperpartisanship. "Both sides are at fault," he wrote on Twitter, blaming Democrats for failing to compromise during Obama's term.
(Compiled by Alina Selyukh; Editing by Alistair Bell and Leslie Adler)
