Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush took questions right around the corner from my home today, at the Broad Street Elementary School in Nashua. After he was done, I approached Sen. Susan Collins, Republican from Maine. My college friend Gordon Lederman z"l worked for her committee on Homeland Security so I introduced myself as his friend, and we remembered him together.
I told her I had a question about Gov. Bush, since she has been known to be a pro-choice Republican and a bridge figure in the Senate between the two parties. I asked her how she sees the governor's talk about his own Christian faith. Is it something he can draw on deeply and explicitly in public, without it becoming a wedge toward non-religious or non-Christian people?
Sen. Collins said a couple things. She pointed to Gov. Bush's own marriage to Columba, who is from Mexico. Sen. Collins said that as someone who grew up in the most "WASP-y" and exclusive environment, Gov. Bush was able to go far beyond his natural social circle and also bring someone from such a different background into his own family. That fact, she believes, is evidence of an inclusiveness deep down.
She also said that she has found Gov. Bush, as a converted Catholic, to be inclusive in his political circle of people who disagree with him, as she does on abortion (she too is Catholic). His tenor in that sense is different from the evangelical Christian wing of the Republican Party, in her experience.
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