The presidential campaign of Jeb Bush, which experts declared to be on life support ahead of Tuesday night's GOP debate, seems to have been infused with new hope after the former Florida governor delivered a solid performance at the Fox Business Network-hosted event.

Bush has been dropping in key national polls for months, but supporters of the son of former President George H.W. Bush and brother of former President George W. Bush believe he may not be able to begin to turn that trend around, Bloomberg reported. Heather Larrison, the candidate's finance director, celebrated Bush's approach in a private call with fundraisers on Tuesday, an unidentified participant told the business publication.

"This was a performance you can sell to donors and keep the fundraising going strong," Larrison told donors, according to the unnamed source.

Bush himself told Fox News on Wednesday morning that he was happy with how the Milwaukee encounter had developed, according to Reuters. "I thought the debate went well, and I had a good debate because I got to talk about things with a little substance instead of the cute one-liners," the former governor explained.

Pundits had noted Bush's attempts to use the debate to aggressively go after Donald Trump, still one of the GOP's front-runners, drawing particular attention to the real-estate tycoon's promise to force millions of undocumented immigrants out of the United States.

"They're doing high-fives in the Clinton campaign right now when they hear this," Bush had said of Trump's plan to deport an estimated 11 million individuals. "We have to win the presidency, and the way you win the presidency is have practical plans.

Not all Republicans were impressed with Bush's performance, however, and Michelle Malkin, whom The Guardian called "a star of the conservative blogosphere," accused the former governor and one of his "mainstream" rivals -- Ohio Gov. John Kasich -- of "bending over backwards on behalf of Obama's illegal 'Dreamers,'" -- or undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as minors.