{"id":1281,"date":"2026-04-30T21:09:02","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T21:09:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/voterguide.local\/?p=1281"},"modified":"2026-05-26T12:04:38","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T12:04:38","slug":"david-john-jones-gov","status":"publish","type":"candidate","link":"https:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/candidates\/david-john-jones-gov\/","title":{"rendered":"David John Jones"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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About the Candidate<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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I started in construction at age 17 and built a successful company. I own F.O. Bailey, a real estate brokerage firm, and have supported Republican causes for years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Education<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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High school<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Previous campaigns and elected office(s) held<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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In 2006, I ran for governor as a conservative independent candidate. I successfully qualified for the ballot but withdrew from the race prior to the general election. I ran because Peter Mills, Janet\u2019s brother, was running, and I was confident that Mills would destroy Maine. After Peter lost the Republican primary, I dropped out.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Why are you running?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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I\u2019m running because I love Maine, raised my children here and now have 8 grandchildren. I\u2019ve had a successful career in real estate, from building houses to high rises, to selling them, and it\u2019s time to give back. Maine\u2019s business climate is awful, and as an experienced businessman and CEO I am well poised to address the problems coming from Augusta. Cut the waste, cut the spending and give freedom back to the people of Maine to choose their own destiny.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Top three priorities<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Affordable energy and our rights to private property and to raise our families are threatened every day by the Democrats. My top priorities as governor are to reduce the budget, increase the homestead exemption to $500k, eliminate property tax on primary residences and get the leftist insanity out of schools and government, including vaccine mandates and providing for immigrants over Mainers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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If you could change one thing about how Augusta functions, what would it be and why?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Augusta passes too many new laws. Maine is buckling under the weight of the Augusta bureaucracy. For every new law there is a fiscal requirement. Democrats passed thousands of new laws and every one costs the Maine taxpayer. Maine\u2019s governor needs to take responsibility for the bloat in Augusta and cut regulations, cut taxes and reduce the size of government. As governor, I\u2019ll create David\u2019s Office of Government Efficiency, DOGE, to cut waste, fraud and taxes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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What is one policy area where you disagree with the consensus of most in your party?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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I\u2019m not looking at the government as a post-retirement career. I\u2019m running for governor to lead as the top executive of the state, clean up the mess we\u2019re in and improve the awful business and cultural climate the Democrats have created. The other candidates will be happy to take a well-paid post in the Jones administration and have said so, but this campaign has a singular goal: get elected and fix this state.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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What is one issue on which you\u2019d be willing to compromise with the other party\u2019s leaders in Augusta?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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It\u2019s an election year and the Democrats running for governor, who all had a hand in destroying the state, are now talking about affordability and tax reform. Why didn\u2019t they propose that over the past 7.5 years? I\u2019m generally poised to disagree with the Democrats because they only have terrible ideas, but if they start talking about lowering taxes and will make choices that reduce every Mainer\u2019s overall tax burden, I think we could agree to make that happen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":3782,"template":"","meta":{"voter_guide_candidate_first_name":"David","voter_guide_candidate_middle_name":"J","voter_guide_candidate_last_name":"Jones","voter_guide_candidate_suffix":"","voter_guide_candidate_race_id":2148,"voter_guide_candidate_age":70,"voter_guide_candidate_hometown":"","voter_guide_candidate_occupation":"Real estate developer","voter_guide_candidate_bio":"","voter_guide_candidate_education":"","voter_guide_candidate_years_in_state":0,"voter_guide_candidate_years_in_municipality":0,"voter_guide_candidate_time_in_area":"26 years","voter_guide_candidate_website":"","voter_guide_candidate_headshot_url":"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/open?id=1RnvtfNC1CJXuLCZx25wcsTTXFitOXbKQ","voter_guide_candidate_date_filed":"3\/3\/2026","voter_guide_candidate_incumbent_years":"","voter_guide_candidate_is_clean_elections":false,"footnotes":""},"vg_party":[564],"vg_residence_municipality":[434],"class_list":["post-1281","candidate","type-candidate","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","vg_party-republican","vg_residence_municipality-falmouth"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/candidates\/1281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/candidates"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/candidate"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/candidates\/1281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3407,"href":"https:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/candidates\/1281\/revisions\/3407"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"vg_party","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vg_party?post=1281"},{"taxonomy":"vg_residence_municipality","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vg_residence_municipality?post=1281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}