President George W. Bush Owned 1.8% of Texas Rangers

Published on September 7th, 2023 5:40 pm EST
Written By: Dave Manuel


Did you know that President George W. Bush used to own a piece of the Texas Rangers?

After working on his father's Presidential campaign in 1988, George W. Bush was looking for something to do with himself.

George W. Bush had previously been the CEO of Spectrum 7, a gas exploration firm. After the company merged with Harken Energy in 1986, Bush became a director of Harken, but had plenty of time on his hands.

After his father won his Presidential campaign in 1988, an interesting offer fell into George W. Bush's lap, courtesy of a family friend:

Any interest in owning the Texas Rangers?

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The answer to that question was yes, and George W. Bush got to work securing the money to close the deal.

George W. Bush had friends in high places, thanks to his time spent studying at Yale and his father's contacts, so putting together the money was not an issue.

In the end, Bush's group bought 85% of the Texas Rangers for $75 million.

Bush himself owned 1.8% of the team after the sale, as he put $606,302 of his own money into the transaction.

This transaction would lead to years of headaches for President George W. Bush, as he had to sell shares of Harken Energy to finance his purchase. This led to allegations of insider trading, as Harken Energy would experience significant issues in the months following Bush's sale.

Bush would ultimately be cleared of any wrongdoing, as the SEC stated that "it appears that Bush did not engage in illegal insider trading".

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Despite owning just 2% of the team, Bush was named the team's managing general partner.

Bush oversaw the building of the team's new stadium. Despite the fact that the stadium was built with public funds, the stadium title was handed over to the Texas Rangers, which resulted in the value of the team surging.

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The Texas Rangers were sold for $250 million in 1998 - a short time before George W. Bush started his Presidential campaign.

Bush, who had an accelerated equity clause in his contract, ended up getting paid between $10-$14 million by the new owner of the team for his piece, which was a very tidy return.