Cori Bush Loses Primary, After Pro-Israel Group Spent Over $8 Million to Help Oust Her

In 2020, Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), a community organizer who was on the frontlines of Black Lives Matter protests in Ferguson, was elected to Congress. The following year, she publicly shared her abortion story for the first time, warning about the impact of overturning Roe v. Wade, which would come months later. And she’s one of the few sitting Congress members to call for the repeal of the Comstock Act, in the hopes of fixing the dormant, 19th-century law so Donald Trump can’t use it to enact a national abortion ban, should he win reelection. 

On Tuesday night, Bush was ousted by Wesley Bell, a county prosecutor whose campaign was funded in part by anti-abortion extremists and the warmongering, pro-Israel lobbyist group, AIPAC. Bell won a little over 51% of the vote to Bush’s 45.6% when the Associated Press called the race.

Bell, who was initially running for Senate against Republican Josh Hawley, entered the primary for Bush’s seat in October, days after she became one of the first Congress members to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. Since, Bell has received at least $8.5 million from AIPAC, making theirs the fifth most expensive primary in history. Bush is the second progressive “Squad” member to be ousted this cycle due to historic AIPAC spending. (Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) lost his primary to George Latimer in June.) Both Bush and Bowman were targeted by AIPAC over their opposition to Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

“AIPAC, I’m coming to tear your kingdom down. And let me put all of these corporations on notice—I’m coming after you too. But I’m not coming by myself. I’m coming with all the people in here doing the work,” Bush said in fiery remarks to her supporters after the race was called. “I don’t fear you. But my issue is, is my people not getting what they need. At the end of the day, whether I’m Congresswoman or not, I’m still taking care of my people.”

In a statement, Bell said he’s “deeply honored and humbled by the trust the people of this district have placed in me.” Over the weekend, he told NBC he’ll “be a progressive member of Congress, but I’m also going to be a practical member of Congress.” His record—and the very circumstances of his victory—are contrary to this.

Over the course of his campaign, Bell quietly took money from Hawley’s donors and those of Sen. Eric Schmitt (R), who ensured Missouri was the first state to ban abortion after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision in 2022. About half of donors who have given to Democratic candidates via AIPAC this cycle have also given to anti-abortion Republicans since 2020. AIPAC has endorsed over 200 anti-abortion Congressional Republicans this cycle alone. In 2006, Bell managed an anti-abortion Republican candidate’s campaign; he previously donated to now-Missouri House Speaker Dean Plocher’s (R) campaign to unseat a Democrat. And while Bell ran for his current position as a “progressive” prosecutor, the incarceration rate among Black women in his county surged by 60% during his tenure.

Speaking to Jezebel last month, Bush warned that Bell and the right-wing donors and lobbyist groups backing him were trying to buy her seat. “My district isn’t for sale,” she said. “And it’s not going to be just a stepping stone in a politician’s career.” Bush’s defeat comes after AIPAC spent at least $14.5 million against Bowman, though some estimate the PAC spent closer to $20 million. AIPAC and the pro-Israel lobby “want to push U.S. politics to the right,” and “they’re trying to do that by targeting candidates of color who are… refusing to be silent about the atrocities in Gaza,” Maurice Mitchell, national director of the Working Families Party, said in a statement shared with Jezebel. The progressive PAC Justice Democrats said Bush’s primary shows that “AIPAC will soon become our generation’s NRA. … Make no mistake, AIPAC has created a blueprint for right-wing Super PACs to try and buy elections.”

While AIPAC has described its Democratic candidates as “strong pro-Israel voices who are also leaders in the Black, Hispanic, Asian American Pacific Islander, and Progressive Caucuses,” it’s no coincidence the PAC is targeting progressive Black leaders with funding from the same donors behind Trump and Republicans. Through Bowman and Bush’s primaries, AIPAC is sending a warning shot to those on the side against genocide, and the PAC is wielding millions from right-wing donors to do so.

The outcome of Bush’s race is bleak, but in her conversation with Jezebel in July, Bush maintained that groups like AIPAC aren’t as strong as they seem. Referencing Bowman’s race, she said, “You don’t spend $20 million from a position of strength, but from a position of weakness—if your position were popular, you wouldn’t need to lie, to break spending records, just to have a chance at beating us.”