A member of the Bush family has all but officially announced his intention to run for governor in Maine.
Jonathan Bush has been a healthcare entrepreneur for over two decades, and now looks poised to enter the 2026 race as soon as next week.
He has been formally exploring a run since July and his cousins, former President George W. Bush and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, headlined an August fundraiser for him at the family compound in Kennebunkport, the Bangor Daily News reported.
Roughly 65 people attended the event at Walker’s Point, with each of them paying $2,075 for a table.
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In a news release this week, Bush, 56, said he’d be making a ‘major announcement’ on Wednesday.
‘I’ve had conversations with people all over the state, and I’m hearing the same thing almost everywhere,’ Bush said in a written statement to the Portland Press Herald.
‘Mainers want a leader who will shake up the status quo in Augusta. They want a proven job creator who will make sure our kids don’t have to leave the state to achieve the American Dream. I can’t wait to gather with friends next week and talk about the next step in this exciting journey.’
The event will take place on the campus of Athenahealth, the multi-billion-dollar company he founded in 1997. He stepped down as CEO in 2018 before it was sold for $17 billion in 2022.
Jonathan Bush, cousins with former President George W. Bush and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, is likely to announce a run for Maine governor next week
He held a fundraiser at the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, in August. Roughly 65 people attended, with each of them paying $2,075 for a table
Bush, assuming he runs as a Republican, is not likely to align himself with the MAGA movement, as he has called President Donald Trump ‘personally troubled’.
And in December 2023, he donated $50,000 to a super PAC that was in support of Nikki Haley, Trump’s main rival in the 2024 Republican primaries.
He has not given much to Maine politicians but has supported Senator Susan Collins, a moderate Republican who voted against Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill.
Bush has also praised Maine’s incumbent Democratic Governor Janet Mills, who will not be running next year because of term limits, for keeping the ‘the lunatic fringe’ of her party at bay.
If Bush were to win next year, he would be putting his family back in the spotlight after a very quiet decade.
Trump largely took over the GOP with his shock win in the 2016 Republican primary, a contest Jeb Bush was initially forecasted to do well in, and his defeat of Hillary Clinton in the general election.
Many believed that the Bush dynasty was dead when George P. Bush, the son of Jeb Bush, lost in a landslide to Ken Paxton in the 2022 GOP primary for Texas Attorney General.
But Jonathan Bush has not been deterred by his family’s recent political woes, or even his own scandals.
Pictured: The Blaine House, which serves as the official residence for the Governor of Maine. It is located in Augusta
The reason he resigned as CEO of Athenahealth is because an activist investor, Paul Singer, sought to push him out as reports surfaced that he had admitted to hitting his ex-wife Sarah Seldon in 2006.
Following the pressure, Bush apologized and accepted responsibility.
‘I take complete responsibility for all these regrettable incidents involving my dear former wife. They occurred 14 years ago during a particularly difficult personal time in my life when I was going through a divorce,’ he said in a statement.
‘At that time, I apologized to Sarah and took responsibility for my actions. I have worked very hard since then to demonstrate my remorse, and today, Sarah and I have a strong, co-parenting relationship,’ he added.
Bush grew up in New York City and spent his summers in North Haven, a small island community of the coast of Maine. He moved to Cape Elizabeth in 2021.
