Realtor and developer David Jones announced his candidacy for Maine governor on Tuesday, joining a field that currently includes former assistant secretary of State Robert “Bobby” Charles, former Paris selectman Robert Wessels, program manager Steven Sheppard, and former Democrat Ken Capron. Others are also expected to enter the GOP primary race.
Jones, 69, lives in Falmouth and briefly ran for governor as an independent in 2006. He is the owner of F.O. Bailey, a real estate brokerage and one of Maine’s oldest, continually-operating businesses. He has restored commercial building, developed a retirement community, and owned a construction company that built apartments and single-family homes in the state.
In 2016, Jones set up the Make Maine Great Again political action committee and was an early supporter of Donald Trump. At a candidates’ forum in Old Orchard Beach on May 15, he spoke while wearing a hallmark Trump red tie.
“America was built around the dinner table,” Jones said at that event last Thursday, quoting former president Ronald Reagan.
In his remarks, Jones called for greater parental involvement in schools, a more business-friendly administration in Augusta, honoring Maine’s constitutional protection of property rights, and a DOGE-like audit of state government.
“If you can’t afford gas in the car or groceries you are not free,” he said. “Let’s get government out of the way and let entrepreneurs be free.”
As Maine faces a housing crisis, Jones is the first developer to join the race. He is a frequent guest on WLOB 100.5.
