Former president George W Bush will not make a presidential endorsement in the 2024 race for the White House, according to his office.
The 43rd president will not join his former vice president Dick Cheney, who said last week that he would vote for Democrat Kamala Harris over Republican Donald Trump.
Cheney’s daughter, leading Trump critic and former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney, has also called on fellow conservatives to vote for Harris in November.
Harris and running mate Tim Walz have courted Republicans who refuse to vote for Trump, with Harris saying in a CNN interview that she would consider appointing a Republican to her cabinet.
Bush’s office said on Saturday that neither he nor former First Lady Laura Bush would endorse a candidate or publicly share how they would vote, according to NBC News.
“President Bush retired from presidential politics years ago,” his office stated.
Bush attended Trump’s inauguration after his 2016 win over Hillary Clinton, and reportedly called his speech “some weird s***.”
A spokesperson after that election said that Bush and his wife did not vote for either Trump or Clinton.
He also refused to endorse Joe Biden or Trump in 2020 and told People that he wrote in Condoleezza Rice’s name. She was Bush’s Secretary of State from 2005 to 2009.
Harris and Trump are set to spar in their first debate in Pittsburgh on Tuesday night. The highly anticipated debate will be hosted by ABC.