Reagan, Democrat

last updated 8 January 2015

Washington, D.C.

Ron Reagan, son of the late Republican president, announced this week that he had accepted an invitation to speak at the Democratic National Convention. Reagan, 46, has recently been an outspoken critic of President Bush. At the elder Reagan’s funeral, Reagan said his father never wore “his faith on his sleeve.” The remark was taken by many as a veiled attack on Bush and his restrictions on stem cell research, which religious conservatives oppose because it involves destroying human embryos. Reagan said he wouldn’t use his convention address to denounce Bush personally. Instead, he said he would use his time to “educate people about stem cell research,” which he and his mother, Nancy, believe could lead to a cure for Alzheimer’s disease, which afflicted Ronald Reagan.