A Maine gubernatorial candidate is running as a political outsider. His last name is Bush

By David Wright, CNN

(CNN) — For the better part of four decades, a member of the Bush family held office somewhere in the United States, a run that seemed to end in 2023 when former Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush left office.

But Jonathan Bush, running for governor of Maine, hopes to restore the tradition.

The nephew of former President George H.W. Bush and cousin of former President George W. Bush is trying to break through a crowded GOP field in Tuesday’s gubernatorial primary and put the state in play this fall.

His family has a long, rich history in Maine, where generations have summered, practiced philanthropy, and put down roots. Pictures of Bushes adorn the walls of businesses in Kennebunkport, the seaside town that hosts the family compound; the promontory where it stands is called “Walker’s Point;” and a major children’s hospital in Portland is named after first lady Barbara Bush.

But in 2026, it’s an open question whether the Bush name still has purchase with Republican voters in a party transformed by President Donald Trump. And the governor’s race in Maine is one of several 2026 contests testing Americans’ feelings toward political dynasties.

For his part, Bush is confronting the question head-on.

“I’m Jonathan Bush,” he says in an ad. “Now hold on, I know what you’re thinking – not another Bush. I get it. But hear me out: I might be different than what you’re expecting. First, I’m not low energy anything.”

An anchor or an asset?

The biting reference to his cousin Jeb Bush’s unsuccessful 2016 presidential campaign, which foundered against Donald Trump’s anti-establishment mockery, reflects the challenge facing a Bush seeking office ten years later.

In an interview with CNN, Bush said the family name “was very much an anchor” in the early days of his campaign.

“Mainers don’t want an insider right now, they’ve got an allergy to somebody who’s part of the system. They feel like the system has betrayed them. So, when they hear the name Bush, they imagine somebody who’s sort of all wired up,” he said.

So Bush, 57, is not running as the keeper of the family legacy. Instead, he’s casting himself as an “an outsider” who wants to disrupt healthcare, education and establishment politics, focusing on his private sector background in his pitch to voters.

Raised in Manhattan before relocating to Maine as an adult, Bush stresses that he’s never lived in Texas, a family stronghold, nor worked in Washington, DC.

The father of seven launched his campaign in Belfast, a midcoast town where Athenahealth, the healthcare technology company he co-founded in 1997, once employed more than 900 people, and highlights he and his wife’s deep family histories in the Pine Tree State.

Bush argues that his personal story and his message, calling for a “shakeup” in Augusta’s current Democratic administration, is resonating with voters. And polling has shown some momentum for Bush in the race’s closing stretch as he’s ramped up advertising; a survey from the University of New Hampshire in May found him climbing into second place, although still significantly behind frontrunner Bobby Charles.

But he’s also contending with a Republican Party that has consolidated around Trump’s Make America Great Again movement nearly two decades after President George W. Bush, and his more traditional brand of GOP establishment politics, left office.

Over that time, the Bush family has found itself increasingly at odds with Trump and that movement. Trump’s early forays into politics included sharp criticism of former President George W. Bush and the Iraq War; bitter clashes with Jeb Bush in the 2016 presidential primary hardened the feelings; and Billy Bush, Jonathan Bush’s younger brother, figured prominently in the “Access Hollywood” scandal that nearly undid Trump’s first presidential bid.

By 2022, cousin George P. Bush’s unsuccessful campaign for Texas attorney general encapsulated the shifting landscape, as he was snubbed for Trump’s endorsement despite solicitous appeals to his base.

‘If you’re a Bush, you’re not new to politics’

Mark Brewer, a political science professor at the University of Maine, suggested that Bush is in “a tough spot.”

“I mean, you’re not only a Bush, which obviously he is,” he said. “Most people may think of Bush and its place within the Republican Party. It’s more of the kind of typical establishment wing of the Republican Party, which is right now very much out of favor.”

While he noted that some more traditional Republicans in Maine, like Sen. Susan Collins, have held on in the Trump era, Brewer said the Bush name was likely to be more of an anchor than benefit in the primary.

Phil Harriman, a former Republican state senator and conservative commentator, said he thought it’s been to Bush’s benefit to address his roots, and where he differs from his family.

“He came across initially as the Energizer Bunny, or a jackrabbit, he was on the go all the time. And I think at first he may have kind of off-put some voters ” he said. “And then he started reintroducing himself, taking the family name head-on, and then began to separate himself, knock on what makes him unique.”

In characterizating himself as an outsider, Harriman sees Bush’s perspective as “I’m not in Augusta, as opposed to, I’m new to politics. If you’re a Bush, you’re not new to politics.”

The latest Bush on the ballot is also not the only one with brand name recognition running this cycle — in Maine and across the country.

Two Democratic gubernatorial candidates’ parents are current Maine officeholders – Hannah Pingree, the daughter of US Rep. Chellie Pingree, and Angus King III, the son of independent US Sen. Angus King. The scion of another famous family, Jack Schlossberg – grandson of President John F. Kennedy – is running for Congress in New York’s 12th Congressional District.

“People sort of talk about Bushes like they’re Kennedys, and there’s a master plan. There’s no master plan, there’s no ranking committee, you know,” Bush said. “It’s a group of people that have had an extraordinary series of lightning bolts in terms of public service in their lives, but are very loving and very moral, a good model,” he said, noting that “I’m living in 2026, not ’06 and not ‘86.”

Ranked choice wildcard

Another wildcard Bush faces in his bid for the Blaine House: Maine’s ranked-choice voting system.

His top rival in the GOP primary is Charles, a former US assistant secretary of state who has emerged as the field’s loudest conservative voice, and its most polarizing. Other candidates include former state Senate Majority Leader Garrett Mason; University of Maine trustee and biotech entrepreneur Owen McCarthy; former Planet Fitness President Ben Midgley; and a handful of lesser-known contenders.

In a statement to CNN, Charles criticized Bush as a “never Trumper,” arguing that Maine is “a small state, and it’s easy for people to get to know you, which means it’s also easy for them to see through you.”

Asked about how he sees the role of the Bush name in Tuesday’s primary, Charles said it’s a question worth raising: “Is this the last nail in the coffin for a family name that keeps losing races across the country? Seems so.”

Bush, meanwhile, has said he would welcome the president’s support.

Under the primary rules, if no candidate clears a majority after the first round, the lowest vote-getters are eliminated and their supporters’ second-choice votes are redistributed until someone reaches 50%.

That structure could benefit Bush, appearing to finish the race with momentum. Charles, despite leading in first-round estimates, is seen as a candidate with a narrow ceiling, strong among committed conservatives but with limited appeal as a second choice.

“I think the conventional wisdom here is that Bobby Charles is going to have the most votes and the question becomes, how close can Jonathan Bush get to him in the first round,” Harriman said. “And then, do the people who voted for their second choice decide they would move in his direction.”

The Democratic side is also crowded, with Pingree and King competing against former state Senate President Troy Jackson, Nirav Shah, the former director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and former Secretary of State Shenna Bellows.

Maine has not elected consecutive governors from the same party since 1952, a historical pattern that could work in the Republican nominee’s favor, with the outgoing two-term Democratic Gov. Janet Mills. But the general election will also feature independent Rick Bennett, a former Republican state senator seen as a viable spoiler.

The national environment adds another variable. Midterm elections have historically punished the president’s party in Congress, and Maine’s governor’s race may not be insulated from the broader political mood.

But, Brewer, the political scientist, noted, “In a general, maybe the Bush name is a little more of a benefit than an anchor – but my answer depends on which election we’re talking about.”

Harriman also wondered if there could be a subliminal messaging benefit to the name. “Clearly there’s something in those chromosomes that says, like, I need to serve,” he said.

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