Maine GOP gubernatorial candidate Jonathan Bush touted the birth of immigrants

Jonathan Bush, the Republican gubernatorial candidate in Maine who was vying for President Trump’s endorsement ahead of the June 9 primary week, previously owned a network of obstetrics clinics in San Diego County that often catered to immigrant women, a Fox News Digital review found.

“Here we were, a large midwifery practice in San Diego County and our business was Medi-Cal, the federal welfare program, and migrant workers. We needed their business and even solicited them with Spanish-language ads on local television,” Bush, who spoke about Athena Women’s Health, then known as Athena Health, recounted. Where does it hurt? — a 2014 book he co-authored.

At its height, Athena Health helped deliver thousands of babies, according to Bush, who opened a network of maternity clinics with his business partner, Todd Park, who would go on years later as chief technology officer during the Obama administration.

“We actually had a birth center. And at its peak, we were doing 3,000 babies a year,” Bush told an audience on the Venture Fizz Podcast in 2022. “If you multiply our monthly rate, it’s probably 3,300. So it’s really big, successful, unsuccessful. A lot of low-income families, low-income, no-Medical income. All kinds of people.”

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Bush’s resurfaced comments about his business raise questions about whether he knowingly helped women, who may not have been US citizens, secure US citizenship for their children through US citizenship and came as he ran a Republican gubernatorial campaign in Maine.

When pressed by Fox New Digital about questions about Athena’s work with immigrants, the Bush campaign pushed back, saying that Athenahealth had never provided maternity services and that, as a healthcare software company, it was illegal to provide them.

“In order to distract from his insane campaign, 25-year-old DC’s Bobby Charles continues to lie about my record of creating hundreds of jobs in Maine,” Bush said in a statement sent to Fox News Digital. “Ironically, Lobbyist Charles – who lied about his military service – recruited a pro-illegal, gun-control, pro-citizen California Democrat Attorney General. Here’s the truth without Lobbyist Lies: athenahealth/Athena Women’s Health provided software, billing, and administrative services to 116,00 American doctors.”

“They have never provided any medical services of any kind. And as I have said consistently, I agree with President Trump – illegal immigrants should be deported,” Bush, first cousin to former President George W. Bush, added.

Although Bush’s statement about Athenahealth not providing medical services through maternity clinics is accurate, the failed business, Athena Health, which Bush was initially involved with for less than 2 years operated maternity clinics.

“Our new company started with a dozen clinics spread across San Diego County,” Bush said in his 2014 letter, referring to Athena Health. “Six doctors and thirty-five midwives delivered two thousand a year. The midwives were all Latinas. They were warm and friendly and supportive, just as our business plan required.”

A 2005 profile piece also recounts the early days of their large fertility clinic, where they “listened to the urgent and sweet sounds of the baby’s first contractions in the adjacent delivery room.”

“Jonathan Bush and Todd Park were sitting in their offices at a fertility clinic in San Diego in 1997, listening to the urgent and sweet sounds of the baby’s first breath in the delivery room nearby. The cries were the music of the former faces of Booz Allen Hamilton, aged 28 and 24, respectively, and who studied the clinic better than doctors. Doctors can,” reads the article.

The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity also describes Bush and Athena’s work as “a fertility clinic in San Diego.”

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Jonathan J. Bush Jr., president and CEO of athenahealth Inc., expresses excitement during a tour of the company in Watertown, Mass., before announcing its expansion into Maine on November 28, 2007. (Gordon Chibroski/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images)

It is not clear what proportion of his clients were migrant women. But according to his comments, the volume seems to be a large amount of business.

“‘Not everyone migrates all the time.’ It was a laugh line for us, but not a very funny one. This was not the booming business we envisioned. We were bleeding money,” Bush said in his letter.

“A lot of low-income families had to pay money — migrant workers, all kinds of people,” he continued.

Bush is a healthcare technology entrepreneur best known for founding Athenahealth, a cloud-based software and medical marketing services company.

“I’ve done my job to disrupt the status quo, create jobs and help people achieve their American dream,” said Bush, who announced his candidacy for governor in October, according to a video announcement.

During his race, he put himself first in Maine, promising to make Maine a destination for businesses and investors by lowering taxes, overhauling local governments, and expanding electricity generation through natural gas storage facilities.

Although he has distanced himself from the MAGA wing of the Republican Party on some issues, he recently told Fox News that “everybody wants an endorsement, a major endorsement like Donald Trump would be amazing. He’s holding his own. This is a purple situation…we’d like one.”

While he’s leaning heavily on his business experience to make his pitch to voters, his top GOP rival, Bobby Charles, believes his maternity clinic and its voice for immigrant women run counter to the pro-America, pro-Maine message he’s now putting forth.

“It’s no surprise to hear that Bush may now also have had a hand in facilitating illegal immigration. The difference could not be clearer. I am a pro-Trump advocate who will remove illegal things from the government and ban sharia law. Jonathan ‘Never Trump,’ Bush simply cannot be trusted to do what the majority wants,” Charles said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

According to the National Immigration Law Center, undocumented immigrants are ineligible to enroll in insurance programs, prompting them to seek services where they can find low costs and flexible payment terms.

According to Bush, as Athena continued to take on a large volume of those customers, the stability of the business weakened.

MINNESOTA MEDICAID MINNESOTA MEDICAID WEALTH COUNTER DISRUPTED BY DEPARTMENT

Protesters hold up a banner during a citizenship rally outside the Supreme Court in Washington on May 15, 2025. (Jose Luis Magana/AP Photo)

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“Our popularity worked against us… Soon, many of our remaining customers were in need. They were either on Medicaid or had no insurance at all and were paying in cash or offered to pay in cash,” Bush wrote in his letter.

“Perhaps I am not giving you anything to tell you that it failed, then it failed,” he continued.

Maine held its first gubernatorial election on Tuesday, June 9.