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Jonathan Bush is a father of seven, a former ambulance driver in New Orleans, a former U.S. army medic, a CEO who brought 1,000 health care careers to Maine, and a candidate for Maine governor.
I’m running for governor because I believe Maine is falling apart at the seams.
A political insider tinkering around the edges simply won’t fix this 4-alarm fire — it’s time for a disruptor-in-chief.
Look, I love this state. My family’s roots here go back generations. Maine is where I chose to build out my company, raise a family, and invest my life’s work. It’s where I’m raising my kids, and where I want them — and all of Maine’s young folks — to be able to build a future without feeling like they have to leave to succeed.
And it drives me crazy that today, thanks, I believe, to Janet Mills and her fellow Augusta insiders, Maine is at the bottom of every list you’d want to top.
When compared to other states, Maine ranks 43rd in overall business environment and 45th in economic outlook.
Our infrastructure ranks 49th in the nation (thank God for Alaska).
In education, we sit at 44th in 4th grade reading and 42nd in 4th grade math, statistics that should alarm every parent and employer in the state.
We’re also at the top of every list you’d want to be at the bottom of. For example: Maine is becoming one of the most expensive places in America to live and work.
We have the 5th highest property tax burden in the country. The 10th highest corporate tax rate. We rank 10th highest in cost of doing business, and over the past year, Maine had the highest increase in residential energy costs nationwide. Families are getting crushed.
And the human cost is devastating. Maine now leads the Northeast — and ranks 8th nationally — in drug overdose deaths.
This is a downward spiral. It will not correct itself.
I’m not running for governor to manage a Janet Mills-style statistical Mainepocalypse. I’m running to disrupt and reverse. To flip the script and give our kids their future back. To break this quantifiable nosedive to the bottom of the barrel.
I’ve spent my career building and joining organizations that solve hard problems. In fact, I love running towards fires because that’s where you find the best people.
I was an EMT on the most dangerous shift in the most dangerous city in America at the time — New Orleans. Our nights were a whirlwind of driving gunshot and stabbing victims to the hospital, squeegeeing the blood off the ambulance floor, then going out to get another person in need of help.
I then enlisted in the U.S. Army as a medic at the very beginning of Desert Storm. There were people from all walks of life in my unit, with one common purpose: America was going to war, and we were going to help win.
Then I took on another fight: the health care bureaucracy. I built athenahealth from a basement startup into a company that now supports one in five doctor visits nationwide — while bringing 1,000 quality jobs to Belfast.
Today, through my company Zus Health, I’ve built another next-generation healthcare company. I know what it takes to attack entrenched bureaucracies, fix broken systems, and deliver results on a scale far beyond any of my competitors in this race.
I believe that’s exactly what Maine needs.
As governor, my first step will be to declare an economic growth emergency. Maine needs immediate relief. I’ll fight for tax cuts that put $1 billion back into Mainers’ pockets — about $2,000 for every working family. That’s real money, real relief, and real momentum.
Next, we’ll audit Augusta — financially and functionally. Every dollar should be accounted for. Every broken process should be fixed. Waste, fraud, and dysfunction aren’t just inefficient, they are a betrayal of public trust. And they take your money out of your pocket.
We’ll make Maine the easiest state in America to do business. That means cutting red tape, simplifying permitting, and forcing state employees to help job creators succeed instead of blocking them.
We’ll expand housing by getting government out of the way. Builders and families should be able to build homes quickly and affordably. The housing crisis is a policy failure — and it’s fixable.
We’ll reduce energy costs by ending the performative clean energy boondoggle, expanding access to natural gas, and using every legal tool available to bring prices down. Energy affordability is economic survival.
And we’ll restore safety and order. Compassion without accountability has failed. We must end policies that enable addiction, undermine law enforcement, and turn our communities into open-air crisis zones. No more needle giveaways. Prosecute criminals.
Maine does not need more excuses or more failed Augusta insiders. It needs bold action to get us back on top!
I’m running for governor because I firmly believe that we can stop this downward spiral and put Maine back on a path to growth, opportunity, and hope.
Please visit JonathanBush.org to learn more about what I will do for you.
I humbly ask for your vote this June.
