‘Sellout’: Critics Rip Wesley Bell After He Defeated Cori Bush With AIPAC Money, Empty ‘Progressive Promises’

St. Louis County prosecutor and congressional candidate Wesley Bell speaks during a campaign stop at a Ward meeting held at the American Czech Center in St. Louis, Missouri, on July 11, 2024. | Source: The Washington Post / Getty

S t. Louis County District Attorney Wesley Bell the presumptive next Congressman from Missouri thanked his volunteers, supporters and voters for his primary election win over Rep. Cori Bush on Tuesday.

One group he did not publicly credit for his win is AIPAC , the powerful pro-Israel lobby that poured millions of dollars into Bell’s campaign coffers – funding that political experts say is the real reason he emerged victorious over Bush, whose unwavering humanitarian support for Palestinians was used against her in the primary race.

It is that same funding that prompted critics to greet Bell’s statement on winning the Democratic primary for Missouri’s 1st Congressional District with extreme derision and a chorus of people calling him a “sellout.”

Bell edged Bush by fewer than five percentage points in a close, contentious race marked not only by the aforementioned AIPAC funding but also accusations of a dereliction of duty for declining to bring criminal charges in the police shooting death of Michael Brown, Jr., in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014.

The combination of those circumstances led to an outpouring of mockery and ridicule aimed at Bell on social media for being a “sellout” to AIPAC.

AIPAC is the same group that similarly spent millions to help defeat New York. Rep. Jamaal Bowman by funding Westchester County Executive George Latimer’s candidacy and paying for ads that were replete with racist dog whistles and attacks . AIPAC is also politically aligned with conservative Republicans like Donald Trump.

Bush suggested that Bell has been politically compromised by AIPAC’s support.

“My opponent Wesley Bell is among AIPAC’s TOP 4 recipients this cycle—and is gladly taking money from anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ+, anti-labor, pro-NRA Republicans who expect his loyalty in return above all else,” Bush, 47, previously wrote on Instagram.

The implication is that once Bell gets to Capitol Hill, he will be indebted to AIPAC and compelled to act in its best interest and not his constituents’.

Bell, 49, who was first elected as a councilmember in Ferguson on the heels of Brown’s police killing, took the oath of office in 2019 to become the first African American district attorney for St. Louis County. He replaced the so-called law-and-order prosecutor Bob McCulloch who oversaw the Brown case but declined to bring criminal charges.

Bell ran on a platform that included a promise to review Brown’s shooting. But more than a year after taking office, he announced that his office would also not be bringing any criminal charges in the notorious police shooting that sparked widespread racial justice protests and contributed to the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.

A report last month from local social justice organizations also found that Bell had not fulfilled “progressive promises made to community members” as a candidate.

“[Bell] promised changes to address some of the key issues that plague the criminal legal system, including overcharging, lack of transparency, reliance on cash bail, and criminalization of poverty, drug use, and mental health illness,” the group said in part.

That report came about a month after it was revealed that Bell previously “managed the campaign of a conservative Republican running for the same seat Bell is seeking today,” as HuffPost reported, sparking concerns about his true political allegiances.

A spokesperson downplayed Bell’s role in the failed campaign of Mark J. Byrne as being on a voluntary basis for “a longtime friend” despite the two having ideological differences.

Bell’s past and current political associations have been no surprise to Ferguson activist Tory Russell.

“Those of us who attempted to hold Ferguson PD accountable already knew who Wesley Bell was years ago,” Russell told NewsOne.

Russell blamed Bell for “stopping the protester-backed consent decree” that held accountable the city of Ferguson, its police department and government and “the countless police shootings he hasn’t prosecuted since becoming the prosecutor in St. Louis County,” including Brown’s.

“Seeing the pictures and the documents of [Bell] working with a MAGA Republican is just the icing on the cake,” Russell said.

SEE ALSO:

MAGA Rep. Troy Nehls Calls Cori Bush’s Husband ‘Thug’ Amid DOJ Campaign Finance Probe

Republicans Are Mad Cori Bush Called Byron Donalds A Black GOP ‘Prop’

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