Claim: George W. Bush received popular votes.

George Walker Bush -LRB- born July 6 , 1946 -RRB- is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 . He was also the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000 . After graduating from Yale University in 1968 and Harvard Business School in 1975 , he worked in the oil industry . Bush married Laura Welch in 1977 and ran unsuccessfully for the House of Representatives shortly thereafter . He later co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball team before defeating Ann Richards in the 1994 Texas gubernatorial election . Bush was elected president in 2000 after a close and controversial win over Democratic rival Al Gore , becoming the fourth president to be elected while receiving fewer popular votes than his opponent .   From a prominent political family , he is the eldest son of Barbara and George H. W. Bush , the 41st President of the United States , making him only the second president to assume the nation 's highest office after his father , following the lead of John Quincy Adams . His brother , Jeb Bush , a former Governor of Florida , was a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in the 2016 presidential election . His paternal grandfather , Prescott Bush , was a United States Senator from Connecticut .   The September 11 terrorist attacks occurred eight months into Bush 's first term as president . Bush responded with what became known as the Bush Doctrine : launching a `` War on Terror '' , an international military campaign that included the war in Afghanistan in 2001 and the Iraq War in 2003 . He also promoted policies on the economy , health care , education , Social Security reform , and amending the Constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage . He signed into law broad tax cuts , the Patriot Act , the No Child Left Behind Act , the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act , Medicare prescription drug benefits for seniors , and funding for the AIDS relief program known as PEPFAR . His tenure included national debates on immigration , Social Security , electronic surveillance , and torture .   In the 2004 Presidential race , Bush defeated Democratic Senator John Kerry in another relatively close election . After his re-election , Bush received increasingly heated criticism from across the political spectrum for his handling of the Iraq War , Hurricane Katrina , and other challenges . Amid this criticism , the Democratic Party regained control of Congress in the 2006 elections . In December 2007 , the United States entered its longest post-World War II recession , often referred to as the `` Great Recession '' , prompting the Bush administration to obtain congressional passage of multiple economic programs intended to preserve the country 's financial system . Nationally , Bush was both one of the most popular and unpopular presidents in history , having received the highest recorded presidential approval ratings in the wake of the September 11 attacks , as well as one of the lowest approval ratings during the 2008 financial crisis .   Bush left office in 2009 , returning to Texas where he purchased a home in Crawford . He wrote a memoir , Decision Points . His presidential library was opened in 2013 . His presidency has been ranked among the worst in historians ' polls published in the late 2000s and 2010s .