Instead of simply voting for Joe Biden or not publicly discussing his choice for president in the 2020 election, former President George W. Bush wrote-in the name of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on his ballot.
"She knows it," Bush told PEOPLE. "But she told me she would refuse to accept the office."
Rice served as Bush’s secretary of state from 2005 to 2009.
The former president has been on a press tour following the recent publication of his new book of paintings, “Out of Many, One” which features a selection of his portraits of American immigrants along with their stories.
Bush, who has in recent years appeared to distance himself from the GOP, described his part on NBC’s “Today” show as "isolationist, protectionist and, to a certain extent, nativist.”
In PEOPLE, the former president took a more moderate stance, saying: "Really, what I should have said — there's loud voices who are isolationists, protectionists and nativists, something, by the way, I talked about when I was president.
“But I painted with too broad a brush ... because by saying what I said, it excluded a lot of Republicans who believe we can fix the problem."
Bush has used his artwork to express his activism and commentary on social and political issues. One of his portraits is of Carlos Mendez.
"I put a DACA student in there because I wanted to just remind Americans that these DACA kids came over when they were... this kid came over when he's 4 years old," Bush tells PEOPLE. "He has no home to go back to. And he's a contributing member of our society, he's an engineer and he's smart and he's capable."
According to CNN, in 2016, Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush left the section of the ballot for president blank.