Out of public office for the first time since the 1960s, Bush became chairman on the executive committee of the First International Bank in Houston.[89] He also spent a year as a part-time professor of Administrative Science at Rice University's Jones School of Business,[90] continued his membership in the Council on Foreign Relations, and joined the Trilateral Commission. Meanwhile, he began to lay the groundwork for his candidacy in the 1980 Republican Party presidential primaries.[91] In the 1980 Republican primary campaign, Bush faced Ronald Reagan, who was widely regarded as the front-runner, as well as other contenders like Senator Bob Dole, Senator Howard Baker, Texas Governor John Connally, Congressman Phil Crane, and Congressman John B. Anderson.[92]

Ronald Reagan, moderator Jon Breen, and Bush participate in the Nashua, New Hampshire, presidential debate, 1980
Bush's campaign cast him as a youthful, "thinking man's candidate" who would emulate the pragmatic conservatism of President Eisenhower.[93] In the midst of the Soviet–Afghan War, which brought an end to a period of détente, and the Iran hostage crisis, in which 52 Americans were taken hostage, the campaign highlighted Bush's foreign policy experience.