Jeb Bush
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush announced Tuesday he would "actively explore" the possibility of a presidential run in 2016. Reuters

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s announcement Tuesday that he will “actively explore” a run for president in 2016 drew an immediate reaction from social media users on Twitter. Bush, 61, revealed in a Facebook post that a family conversation at Thanksgiving dinner informed his potential course of action.

“We shared good food and watched a whole lot of football,” Bush wrote. "We also talked about the future of our nation. As a result of these conversations and thoughtful consideration of the kind of strong leadership I think America needs, I have decided to actively explore the possibility of running for president of the United States.”

He added: “In January, I also plan to establish a leadership PAC that will help me facilitate conversations with citizens across America to discuss the most critical challenges facing our exceptional nation. The PAC’s purpose will be to support leaders, ideas and policies that will expand opportunity and prosperity for all Americans."

Bush did not definitively say that he would run for president in 2016, but concluded his note with a vow that he would “be in touch soon.” Bush is the son of former President George H.W. Bush and brother of former President George W. Bush.

The Facebook announcement came about two weeks after he told a gathering of the world’s top business leaders at the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council that he would decide “in short order” whether he would run. Almost three quarters of the CEOs who attended the event said they would support Bush as the Republican nominee.

Democratic National Committee Communications Director Mo Elleithee lost no time speaking out against a Bush candidacy. “I don’t know what the difference is between ‘thinking about’ running and ‘actively exploring’ running, but I suspect it has a lot to do with keeping his name in the news. However you see it, there’s no parsing this simple fact: Jeb Bush has fully embraced the failed economic agenda that benefits only a select few at the expense of the middle class. That’s not going to change no matter how many different ways he says he may run," Elleithee said.

Twitter users had a widespread, largely negative reaction to Bush’s statement. A roundup of some of their reactions can be found below.

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