Former President George W. Bush has no plans to support the election

Former President George W. Bush has no plans to endorse a presidential candidate, his office told NBC News on Saturday.

When asked whether the former president or his wife Laura would endorse a candidate or make their voting behavior public, Bush’s office responded “no.”

“President Bush retired from presidential politics years ago,” the office added.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign declined to comment but cited the campaign’s efforts to reach out to Republicans.

Bush’s former vice president Dick Cheney announced Friday that he would support Harris in the November election.

“In our country’s 248-year history, there has never been anyone who posed a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” Cheney said in a statement. “He attempted to rig the last election with lies and violence to keep himself in power after voters rejected him. He can never be trusted with power again.”

Days earlier, the former vice president’s daughter, former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, said she would vote for Harris. Both Cheneys, who are Republicans, have criticized former President Donald Trump, and the younger Cheney was particularly vocal.

Responding to questions from reporters on Saturday, Harris said she was “honored” by the Cheneys’ support, adding that it was “a real affirmation to them that we love our country and that there is more that unites us than divides us.”

The fact that Bush is not endorsing his party’s candidate is notable in itself. In 2012, Bush said he would support Republican candidate Mitt Romney against former President Barack Obama. Four years earlier, Bush endorsed the late Senator John McCain in the 2008 presidential election.

Both former presidents’ teams under Bush said in 2016 that father and son would avoid comments about Trump. Instead, the younger Bush supported Republican senators. Neither Bush nor his wife voted for any of the major parties’ presidential candidates in 2016, a spokesman said this year.

The elder President Bush died in 2018, but the younger said in 2021 that he had nominated former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as his presidential candidate for 2020.

Several prominent moderate Republicans and former Trump administration officials have broken with the former president and are supporting Harris, despite policy differences.

Harris’ campaign last month included more than two dozen Republican supporters, including former Republican Governor Bill Weld of Massachusetts, former Rep. Denver Riggleman of Virginia and former Trump administration press secretary Stephanie Grisham.

Later in August, more than 200 former staffers of Presidents Bush, McCain and Romney signed a letter supporting Harris as a presidential candidate.

To reach out to Republican voters, the Harris campaign hired a national director of Republican engagement to focus on independent and moderate Republican voters and created a “Republicans for Harris” program.