BELFAST, Maine — A member of the Bush family is now officially in the race to become Maine’s next governor.
Health care entrepreneur Jonathan Bush, the cousin of former President George W. Bush and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, launched his gubernatorial campaign Wednesday after exploring a Republican bid since the summer. Bush had been increasing his presence in Maine political circles since the Bangor Daily News first mentioned his moves last year. His well-known cousins also hosted a fundraiser for him at the family’s Kennebunkport compound in August.
Bush said Wednesday he is running for governor to “slam the brakes on the defeatist notion that somehow Maine can’t do better,” outlining lofty goals that included a $1 billion income tax cut, an audit of state spending and a doubling of Maine’s natural gas access. Bush also mentioned drug use and homelessness in the state’s largest city by vowing to “clean up Portland.”
“I am a disruptor, a job creator and a fanatic Maine optimist, and when I’m governor, this age of pessimism will end,” Bush said. “Maine will be the best state in the nation to start and run a business. We’ll be the easiest state in the nation to build new homes. We’ll lower our taxes and improve our schools, and this beautiful state will finally have the economy it deserves.”
Bush’s candidacy instantly drew criticism from his right and left. His family name could prove to be both an asset and liability in Maine and make him an odd fit in a Republican Party controlled by President Donald Trump, who feuded with his family during the 2016 campaign.
The outspoken Bush has criticized Trump more harshly than many other Republicans over the past few years, calling “personally troubled” in an interview last year and working against him during the 2024 primaries. He grew up in New York City and spent summers in North Haven while growing up, moving permanently to Cape Elizabeth in 2021.
The 56-year-old was joined Wednesday by his brother, the TV presenter Billy Bush, and hundreds of supporters at the Belfast office of Athenahealth, the company he cofounded in the 1990s before moving its office and hundreds of jobs to the midcoast town in 2007. The crowd included rank-and-file employees and local lawmakers curious about the announcement.
The campaign used the location to point to his business success and address some of his vulnerabilities. Bush was pushed out of athenahealth in 2018 following an activist investor’s campaign. It came amid reports he confessed to physical altercations with his ex-wife more than a decade earlier. Both said they have successfully co-parented their five kids after divorcing.
In a memo shared ahead of Wednesday’s announcement, the Bush campaign touched on potential attack lines against him by saying Bush and his first wife, Sarah Selden Bush, have a “great relationship to this day” and that she even supports his gubernatorial bid.
“I support him and I hope the people of Maine will too.” Selden Bush said.
The campaign noted that Bush’s current wife’s family has been in the state for seven generations. Regarding the candidate’s comments about Trump and his family’s rocky relationship with the president, the campaign’s memo said it polled Maine Republicans this summer and found they have an overwhelmingly favorable view of the Bush family.
Maine Democratic Party Chair Charlie Dingman responded to Bush’s candidacy with a statement saying the state doesn’t need “an out-of-state corporate executive with family connections to right-wing political administrations.” Republican candidate Bobby Charles, who served in George W. Bush’s administration, said Bush’s identity is based on “hatred” of Trump.
BDN writer Michael Shepherd contributed to this report.