DALLAS _ Despite reports to the contrary, former President George W. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush did not vote for any presidential candidate, instead voting for Republicans down ballot, a spokesman for the former president said.
Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh claimed on his show Tuesday that the Bushes had voted on Election Day for Hillary Clinton, according to the Washington Examiner.
Freddy Ford, a spokesman for Bush, disputed that statement, noting that the Dallas-based former president voted two weeks ago, not on Election Day.
Republican Texas state Rep. Jason Villalba also denied the report on Twitter, saying that he had spoken with George W. Bush personally and that he was not comfortable voting for either Clinton or Trump.
Villalba, the Republican incumbent for the district that covers parts of North Dallas, Preston Hollow, Lake Highlands and East Dallas, counts George W. and Laura Bush among his constituents. Villalba has been an outspoken critic of Trump.
In recent months, many have wondered whether the two most recent Republican presidents would comment on the upcoming election. But in May, George W. Bush and his father, former President George H.W. Bush, said they would be sitting out the 2016 general election.
No member of the Bush family attended July's Republican National Convention.
Their decision not to comment on the race didn't come as a total surprise after George W. Bush's brother, Jeb Bush, dropped out of the race for the GOP nomination earlier this year.
Only Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, Jeb Bush's son and the 43rd president's nephew, has publicly commented on the race.
In August, he said he had to swallow a "bitter pill" to support Trump after his father's defeat. And on Tuesday, The Associated Press reported that George P. Bush was the "only Bush to vote the GOP ticket."
In the last few months of the election, George W. Bush instead focused on fundraising for Republican senators in tight races.
