For much of the 2016 Republican primary, conventional wisdom has had it that former President George W. Bush is something of a liability to his brother Jeb's struggling campaign.
But for at least one top Republican in South Carolina—the state that holds the American South's premier presidential nominating contest and only early state that has never dealt a primary defeat to a member of the Bush family — the 43rd president could be the party establishment's answer to stop front-runner Donald Trump in his tracks.
"The game changer is: Will 43 engage?" Katon Dawson, a former chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party, said in an interview about the former president, who was the nation's 43rd commander-in-chief. "If 43 engages, it will matter for his brother, but, really, it will matter for the entire team."