Cori Bush becomes second Squad member ousted in a primary

Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) was defeated in a primary Tuesday, becoming the second member of the progressive Squad to be ousted this year after massive spending by pro-Israel groups.

Wesley Bell, the elected lead prosecutor in St. Louis County, Missouri, beat Bush in what became the second most-expensive House primary in history, thanks largely to the over $8 million in spending from the United Democracy Project, the super PAC arm of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

In a statement released after The Associated Press called the race, Bell thanked his supporters.

"I am deeply honored and humbled by the trust the people of this district have placed in me,” he said in a statement. “This victory belongs to every volunteer, every supporter, and every voter who believes in our vision for a better future."

Although the Israel-Hamas conflict had barely factored into the primary — United Democracy Project’s ads were about other topics — the wave of outside spending in the St. Louis-based district had amplified Bush’s vulnerabilities. She’d faced a federal investigation this year into her campaign spending on security services and had alienated some local allies with her voting record.

Bell had campaigned as a progressive as he knocked Bush’s legislative record over her last two terms in Congress. He had singled out her vote against the bipartisan infrastructure law in 2021 and also highlighted her missed votes.

Bush had the backing of the Squad-supporting Justice Democrats, which spent nearly $2 million on ads. Bush and her allies had sought to paint Bell as an opportunist for abandoning a planned campaign for Senate to run against Bush and had highlighted his past ties to Republicans and current overlap with GOP donors

"Whether I'm congresswoman or not, I'm still taking care of my people," she told her supporters Tuesday evening as she denounced the outside spending against her. "Because your side is so weak, you had to spend $19 million.”

They weren’t able to match the flood of outside spending, but Bush had aimed to turn out more of her base in Tuesday’s primary by out-organizing Bell. She’d been elected in a wave of activist enthusiasm when she unseated longtime incumbent Lacy Clay in 2020 and had hoped to reactivate her supporters this year.

She’d also been able to count on some institutional support. St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones had been a Bush backer, and House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) visited St. Louis last week to campaign with Bush.

Bush is the second member of the progressive Squad to lose their primary this year after Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) was defeated in June, also having faced a barrage of advertising by United Democracy Project. But the Missouri race figures to be the last major skirmish this year between pro-Israel groups and other Squad members who’ve criticized Israel’s handling of its war against Hamas. The group did not spend to take on Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, who won renomination in her primary on Tuesday, or Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who is a heavy favorite in her primary next week.

Bell will be the heavy favorite in November: Now-President Joe Biden carried the district by 59 percentage points in 2020.