Artificial Intelligence is “in”, quality healthcare is “out”
By Roberta Millstein
Is Eric Jones, running to unseat Mike Thompson in Congressional District 4, really a progressive? His supporters often describe him that way, with Our Revolution, for example, stating that he has a “bold, progressive vision.”
Would a liberal or a progressive or any sort of committed Democrat donate to a Republican candidate from a well-known establishment Republican family? One who seeks to dismantle health care support for his constituents? Because this is what Jones has done.
On October 28, 2025 — after Jones had already declared his House campaign as a Democrat — he donated the maximum amount allowed by the state of Maine ($2075) for a candidate running in the Republican primary for governor. The candidate is Jonathan Bush, cousin of George W. Bush and nephew of George H. W. Bush. Here is a screenshot showing Eric Jones’s donation to Jonathan Bush’s campaign:
Indeed, a number of Bush family members join Eric Jones in supporting Jonathan Bush’s Republican run for governor in Maine. These include Former President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush. Here are screenshots showing their donations:
In case that is not enough to convince you that Eric Jones is supporting a “real” Republican, consider the words of the Maine Democrats, who state that Jonathan Bush is “push[ing] his dangerous plan to cut health care for Mainers”:
“Jonathan Bush’s attacks on MaineCare aren’t new. In the ad, Bush says he’ll “audit every program,” but we know he plans to use AI to kick Mainers off MaineCare. He made that clear on the debate stage just this week and when he compared MaineCare to Putin bombing schools.” (link)
(Maine Care is Maine’s name for Medicaid, just as Medi-Cal is California’s name for Medicaid).
This is particularly telling because Jones, who is originally from Maine, has made increasing access to health care and health care affordability one of the major planks of his campaign. Do people in Maine not deserve affordable and accessible health care too? Why would Jones, a purported Democratic promoter of health care, support a candidate who wanted to dismantle health care, a Republican candidate opposed by his state Democratic party?
Here’s one way to connect the dots. Jonathan Bush supports using AI for health care. Apparently Jones, a board member of the Maven Clinic (per his LinkedIn page and other internet sources), does too. Fierce Healthcare quotes Jones as follows:
“Maven’s model, coupling technology with clinical providers, is powerful in providing the right care at the right time and changing the way we think about care delivery. The high utilization and engagement on Maven’s platform speak to the pressing need Maven solves.” (link).
The Maven Clinic, it should be noted, recently “introduced Maven Intelligence, an artificial intelligence-powered infrastructure embedded across its virtual clinic, care programs and benefits platform.” The Dragoneer Investment Group, where Jones worked until just before he resigned to run for Congress and where he was made partner, was one of the venture capitalist firms who invested in the Maven Clinic in August 2021 and then again in October 2024. A few weeks after the investment in 2024, Maven Clinic laid off 10% of its workforce.
And this would fit the model of venture capitalism, Jones’s line of work for more than 12 years: lay off workers, introduce “efficiencies,” and increase the bottom line for the company, which of course increases the bottom line for the venture capitalist firm. By now, most of us have experienced and read about all of the failures of artificial intelligence, some amusing, some verging on terrifying.
Here it is also worth noting that Dragoneer has invested in Anthropic, the artificial intelligence company. I recommend this account of Anthropic’s air pollution increasing, greenhouse gas spewing, and water guzzling activities, other puzzling things for a progressive/liberal/Democrat to support.[1]
It would seem, then, that Jones the “Democrat” and Bush the Republican have views in common about health care. And it further seems that when Jones touts his health care experience and his plans for health care, this is the sort of thing he has in mind. So maybe Jones’s support of Republican Bush makes perfect sense — a fellow traveler.
So, is Jones a progressive — a progressive who supports Republicans and who wants “efficient” health care at the expense of workers and patients, who supports an industry that is threatening our health and our planet? That would be a very strange sort of progressive indeed.
Jones is not who he and his supporters say that he is.
Coda
Of course, those who have been following my articles in the Davisite on Eric Jones’s VC background, VC and tech executive donors, and VC Super PAC funders (here, here, and here) shouldn’t be too surprised by any of this, although I have to admit that seeing it all laid out has me a bit rattled. It’s one thing to strongly suspect; it’s another to start to amass even more evidence that supports your suspicions.
But just to update those previous stories: Jones’s donations to his own campaign now exceed $5 million and the ad buys from the New Leadership Now Super PAC are verging on $1.7 million, with new donations promising many more dollars spent in the future.
Finally, here are two other articles I recently learned about and recommend highly:
- Follow the Money: How Silicon Valley Is Progressive-Washing Its Way Into Your Congressional District
- Wrong seat, Wrong Moment— Part II: Follow the Money, Part II: Farmland or Data Centers? CA-04 Decides June 2nd
[1] And in case this weren’t bad enough, Jones is now supporting federal regulation of AI over state regulation: “..the industry needs clear, predictable, and accurate federal rules. The current vacuum of federal action is creating exactly the kind of uncertainty that makes long-term investment harder, not easier. A patchwork of 50 state regulations is not a favorable operating environment for anyone building at scale.”
Davisite 
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