In 1986, after a sudden collapse in the price of oil, Bush arranged for Spectrum to be sold to Harken Energy for a bargain price. He later sold his original stock shares and made a considerable profit.

Shortly after his 40th birthday in July 1986, the sometimes-wayward Bush reached a turning point in his personal and professional life. He quit drinking altogether and became more religious, turning to his wife’s Methodist faith (his family is Episcopalian). He also became noticeably more serious and driven professionally, a change many pegged to his father’s decision to run for president in 1988. Drawn by the challenge of national politics, Bush moved with his family to Washington, D.C., in the fall of 1987 to work on the elder George Bush’s successful campaign. Though George W. Bush had no official title on the campaign staff, he was his father’s most trusted confidant and a major point of contact for his colleagues. He also became known as a talented speaker and as the campaign’s chief liaison to Christian conservatives.

Shortly after the election in November 1988, the younger Bush moved back to Texas, this time to Dallas, where he organized a group of wealthy investors (including himself) and arranged the purchase of the Texas Rangers professional baseball team. As the team's managing partner, Bush became a fixture in the stands at the Rangers' home games and earned a name for himself in Texas aside from his family's impressive legacy. (He also earned a good deal of money—after an initial outlay of only $606,000, Bush walked away with nearly $15 million when the team was sold in 1998.)

Despite his success with the Texas Rangers, Bush shocked everyone—including his family—when he was elected governor of Texas in 1994, defeating the popular incumbent Democrat Ann W. Richards by 350,000 votes. Showing enviable composure and focus during the campaign, Bush triumphed on a platform including increased local control of schools and welfare reform. During his first legislative session in 1995, Bush achieved most of his goals, including important steps towards tort reform—or limiting the ability of plaintiffs to bring lawsuits, which especially appealed to Texas’s big business interests. His affable nature and ability to appeal personally to nearly everyone across party lines made him the most popular big-state governor in the country by the end of his first year—even the Democrat-controlled legislature found him agreeable to work with.

In 1997, Bush backed a huge tax reform plan that would have lowered property taxes by a staggering $3 billion per year, among other cuts.