Jonathan Bush’s Maine run is getting tangled with his earlier San Diego health venture, which he describes as a network of birthing clinics that served many low-income and migrant women, his own book and interviews show. The campaign insists the modern athenahealth business never provided medical services, while opponents use the past to question his record and immigration stance as Maine heads into a June 9 primary.
In his 2014 book Bush is blunt about the clientele and scale of the enterprise he helped start. “Here we were, the largest obstetric practice in San Diego County and our business was mostly Medi-Cal, the state welfare program, and migrant workers. We needed their business and even appealed to them with Spanish-language ads on local TV,” he wrote, describing Athena Women’s Health in straightforward terms.
Bush and his partner built a big operation in a short time, and the numbers he shares make that clear. “We actually owned a birth center. And at the height, we were doing 3,000 babies a year,” he told an audience on the Venture Fizz Podcast in 2022, noting months where activity might have topped 3,300 births.
The campaign has pushed back hard on claims that the modern athenahealth provided hands-on medical care. “To distract from his flailing campaign, 25-year DC lobbyist Bobby Charles continues to lie about my record of creating hundreds of Maine jobs,” Bush said in a statement. “Ironically, Lobby Charles – who lied about his military service – lobbied for a liberal pro-illegal immigrant, pro-gun control, pro-birthright citizenship California Democrat Attorney General. Here’s the truth without the Lobbyist Lies: athenahealth/Athena Women’s Health provided software, billing, and management services to 116,000 American doctors.”
The campaign went further to stress a tough-on-illegal-immigration stance while defending Bush’s résumé. “They have never provided any medical services of any kind. And as I’ve said consistently, I agree with President Trump — illegal immigrants should be deported,” Bush added, tying his position to a Republican law-and-order message.
Still, Bush’s own account documents the early clinic roots of the venture he later separated from. “Our new company started out with twelve clinics scattered through San Diego County,” he wrote, adding that “The six doctors and thirty-five midwives were doing two thousand births a year. The midwives were all Latinas. They were warm and friendly and supportive, just what our business plan called for.”
Contemporaneous profiles of the operation capture a vivid, hands-on scene. “Jonathan Bush and Todd Park sat in their offices in a San Diego birthing clinic in 1997, listening to the urgent and beautiful sounds of a baby’s first gulps of air from the birthing room nearby,” one profile recalled, placing Bush and his partner in the thick of clinical life early on.
Other descriptions from the period echoed that hands-on tone, referring to the venture as a “birthing clinic in San Diego.” Those firsthand portrayals have become central to debate about whether Bush’s early business catered extensively to migrants and how that squares with his campaign message now.
How much of the clientele were migrants is murky, but Bush’s own lines make it clear they were a visible and regular part of the practice. “‘All migrants all the time.’ It was a laugh line for us, but not a very funny one. This was not the thriving business we envisioned. We were hemorrhaging money,” he wrote, and elsewhere noted, “A lot of low-income families had to pay cash — migrant laborers, all kinds of people.”
Bush has leaned on his tech and business record on the campaign trail while insisting his track record creates jobs for Mainers. “I’ve made my career disrupting the status quo, creating jobs and helping people achieve their American dream,” he said in his campaign announcement, pitching private-sector experience as his case for leadership.
On policy and endorsements, Bush has tried to straddle a pragmatic lane while courting conservative backing. He said of the Trump endorsement, “everybody wants endorsements, a giant endorsement like Donald Trump would be phenomenal. He’s held off. This is a purple state…we’d love one,” acknowledging the political weight of Trump while positioning his campaign strategically.
That positioning has invited sharp attacks from his chief Republican rival, who frames Bush’s past business choices as out of step with a hardline immigration agenda. “It is not surprising to hear Bush now may also have been involved in facilitating illegal immigration. The contrast couldn’t be clearer. I am a pro-Trump conservative who will remove illegals out of the state and ban sharia law. Jonathan ‘Never Trump,’ Bush simply can’t be trusted to do what most Mainers want,” Bobby Charles said, turning the history into a raw political issue.
Bush’s own account ties the clientele mix to business trouble as the enterprise grew. “Our popularity worked against us… Pretty soon, most of our remaining clients were indigent. They were either on Medicaid or they had no insurance at all and paid in cash or promised to pay in cash,” he wrote, later adding, “I’m probably not giving away anything to tell you that it floundered, and then failed.” The dispute over what that history means for his fitness to lead Maine will play out as voters head to the polls on June 9.
