Jeb Bush to tout 'right to rise' vision in Detroit speech

This post has been updated:

Jeb Bush will call Wednesday for a conservative but reform-minded approach to economic opportunity, as he launches a series of speeches ahead of a likely presidential campaign.

In excerpts of his speech to the Detroit Economic Club, Bush rebukes the Washington approach to addressing income inequality and seeks to explain what he means by a "right to rise" for everyone. The former Florida governor will also pledge to take his message directly to cities like Detroit hit hard by years of recession.

"I will offer a new vision. A plan of action that is different than what we have been hearing in Washington, D.C.," Bush will say. "It is rooted in conservative principles and tethered to our shared belief in opportunity and the unknown possibilities of a nation given the freedom to act, to create, to dream and to rise."

Bush is playing off the name of his Right to Rise political action committee, which the former Florida governor recently established to support his political activities and serve as a vehicle to back federal and state candidates. He has said in several speeches that a Republican presidential candidate can be successful in 2016 if his or her message is "positive" and "uplifting."

Saul Anuzis, a former Michigan Republican Party chairman , said Bush's approach is a good one.

"This early in the process positive speeches that set you up as a statesman and above politics is good politics," said Anuzis, who also used to represent Michigan in the Republican National Committee. "This is the home of Reagan Democrats. If you can find a candidate who appeals to working class, Reagan Democrats who are culturally conservative then you have a real opportunity."

In picking Detroit to make one of his first major speeches, Bush has set out to debunk what he says is a theme pushed by the news media that "conservatives don't care about the cities." By doing so, he says, there will be "a whole lot of new conservatives."

"We believe that every American and in every community has a right to pursue happiness. They have a right to rise," Bush will say. "Let's go where our ideas can matter most. Where the failures of liberal government are most obvious. Let’s deliver real conservative success."

Detroit, which emerged from bankruptcy in December, is beset by high unemployment and foreclosure rates, boarded up homes and foreclosed properties, and decreasing population.

Michigan is also a blue state that hasn't voted Republican for president since 1988 -- although GOP Gov. Rick Snyder won a second term in November. Bush campaigned for Snyder and other Michigan Republicans in October, before the 2014 midterm elections.

This is Bush's first major speech since Mitt Romney, a rival for GOP establishment support, announced last week he would skip the 2016 presidential race.