Bush Administration - Career

Career

After graduating from Yale in 1948, Bush opted not to follow his father into investment banking. Instead, he moved his family to Odessa, Texas, and went to work for Dresser Industries, an oil company owned by a family friend. Bush started his own oil and gas drilling firm in 1953 and moved his corporate headquarters to Houston, Texas, in 1958.

Bush was active in local Republican politics from the time he moved to Texas. He served as Houston County Republican Party chairman from 1963 to 1964. In 1964 he took a leave of absence from his firm, Zapata Petroleum, to challenge incumbent Democrat Ralph Yarborough for his seat in the U.S. Senate. Bush campaigned as a western conservative, following the lead of Arizona senator Barry Goldwater, the Republican presidential nominee. Goldwater was an avid anti-Communist who believed in a strong national defense and wanted to roll back the social programs that had proliferated in the...

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