US: Jeb Bush launches 2016 presidential campaign

Reports coming out of the United States has it that another of the former US president George Bush son Jeb who's also a brother to former President George Bush jr. has launched his 2016 campaign push.

Jeb Bush has entered the 2016 US presidential race, hoping his image as a conservative rather than his family pedigree stands out in a Republican field that will include 10 other candidates.

Bush formally launched his bid at Miami's Dade College on Monday, a diverse university in Florida chosen to transmit the message that he aims to run an inclusive campaign.

The son and brother of two former presidents, Bush, 62, highlighted his own successes as a two-term governor of Florida, where he claimed high job growth and other economic and social gains.

"We made Florida number one in job creation and number one in small business creation," Bush said, boasting that he slashed taxes by $19bn. "I know we can fix this. Because I've done it."

Al Jazeera's Andy Gallacher, reporting from Bush's campaign launch, said Bush appeared to distance himself from the family legacy in launching the "Jeb 2016" campaign.

"He has the name recognition but that can also hinder him on this campaign," our correspondent said.

"Many of the other candidates running for the nomination are younger, fresher and more conservative than Jeb Bush is. When he was governor here, he was considered conservative.

"But in the 13 years since he ran for office the party has moved to the right, making him more of a moderate these days but he says he can reach out to voters the Republicans don't normally get."

Immigration reform

Jeb Bush's presidency ambitions

Strongly pro-business and anti-abortion, Bush has resisted party orthodoxy, making far-right voters wary of his support for immigration reform, federal education standards and a willingness to hike taxes as part of a deficit-cutting deal.

Fluent in Spanish, he insists legalising millions of undocumented workers is the immigration debate's "grown-up plan" and will fuel economic growth, unlike the mass deportations advocated by some hard-liners.

Nationally, Bush is placed at the top of most Republican polls, but he is not the dominant figure many had expected.

Hillary Clinton is the front-runner on the Democratic side, with no current close competition.

While many Americans were lamenting the prospect of another Bush-Clinton presidential race and criticised the country's dynastic politics, plenty of analysts were saying that they expected that neither candidate might still be in the race in the primaries in more than a year, our correspondent said.