Supreme Court nominee, wife met when working for President George Bush
The common link between U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and his West Texan wife, Ashley, was none other than former President and Texas Gov. George W. Bush.
After nominating Kavanaugh to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 2006, Bush joked at the swearing-in ceremony that Kavanaugh’s marriage was the “first lifetime appointment I arranged.”
Ashley Estes Kavanaugh is a native Texan who graduated from Abilene Cooper High School and the University of Texas. The two met while working for the Bush administration in 2001.
“Ashley likes to remind me that true love, true love is a Texas girl who is willing to marry a guy with a lifetime appointment in Washington, D.C.,” Kavanaugh quipped at the swearing-in ceremony.
Ashley Kavanaugh was an assistant to Bush when he was governor in 1996, then worked on his campaign for president, according to her LinkedIn page. Once Bush was elected, she served as his personal secretary until 2005.
After that, she was director of special projects and media relations coordinator for the Dallas-based George W. Bush Presidential Foundation, according to her LinkedIn page. She is now town manager of Section 5 of the village of Chevy Chase, a Maryland suburb of Washington.
Kavanaugh also worked on Bush’s campaign, then spent more than five years in his administration as associate counsel and senior associate counsel. He was an assistant and staff secretary to the president from 2003 to 2006, according to his Court of Appeals biography.
Karen Hughes, a counselor to Bush in the early 2000s, recalled working with both Kavanaughs in the administration.
“Brett and Ashley Kavanaugh are the type of people you would want as your best friends or next-door neighbors: warm and friendly, totally dependable and full of both compassion and integrity,” Hughes said in an email. “Brett combines great intellect with good judgment, and I can’t think of a person more qualified to serve on the United States Supreme Court.”
The couple met while working together in the administration — their first date was the day before 9/11, which Brett Kavanaugh described in a speech Monday after President Donald Trump nominated him.
“The next morning I was a few steps behind her as the Secret Service shouted out to all of us to sprint out the front gates of the White House, because there was an inbound plane,” Kavanaugh said. “In the difficult weeks that followed, Ashley was a source of strength for President Bush, and for everyone in this building. Through bad days and so many better days since then, she has been a great wife and inspiring mom. I thank God every day for my family.”
The two were married in 2004 at Christ Church, in the Episcopal diocese of Washington, in a ceremony that Bush and first lady Laura Bush attended, according to a Washingtonian article with the headline “Weddings of the Rich & Famous.”
Bush weighed in on Kavanaugh’s nomination Monday, saying Trump had made “an outstanding decision.”
“Brett is a brilliant jurist who has faithfully applied the Constitution and laws throughout his 12 years on the D.C. Circuit,” Bush said in a statement. “He is a fine husband, father, and friend — and a man of the highest integrity. He will make a superb justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.”