Congresswoman Cori Bush (D-Mo.), a progressive Democrat and Black Lives Matter activist who participated in the Ferguson protests, lost her reelection bid to Wesley Bell, a St. Louis prosecutor and Democrat who had the backing of a deeply pocketed pro-Israel lobby.
As of Wednesday morning, Bush accumulated 45.625% of the vote compared to Bell’s 51.155% in Missouri’s Democratic primary. Her loss follows that of Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-16th District New York) in June.
Bush and Bowman, members of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party known as “The Squad,” counted among those who called for a cease-fire in Gaza. Bush went as far as introducing a House cease-fire resolution and pressing for cutting aid to Israel.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobbying group also known as AIPAC, spent more than $9 million to defeat the Missouri incumbent. In her concession speech on Aug. 6, an impassioned Bush gave a message to them and other big spenders.
“AIPAC, I’m coming to tear your kingdom down,” Bush said. “Let me put all 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 that’s doing the work.”
Four Years of Progressive Legislation in Recognition of Victims of Police Violence
After entering office, Bush, the first African-American woman to represent Missouri in the U.S. House of Representatives, introduced a slew of legislation intended to address quality-of-life and public safety issues. Her People’s Response Act, introduced last July, set out to establish a division within the Department of Health and Human Services that conducts research on approaches to public safety that expand opportunities for historically marginalized groups. Bush also championed the BREATHE Act, a federal omnibus package that holds elected officials accountable for enhancing Black self-determination and diverts funding from policing and incarceration into public safety approaches that protect Black lives and communities.
Another one of her bills, the “Helping Families Heal Act,” allocates funds to provide families of police violence victims with mental health resources. It had the support of co-sponsors Bowman and Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.). Endorsers included Black Lives Matters Grassroots, the Michael O.D. Brown We Love Our Sons and Daughters Foundation, and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement.
Bush’s primary election loss took place just as she and many of her constituents in District 1, which includes Ferguson, Missouri, are preparing to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of Michael Brown Jr.’s police-involved killing.
The event bears significance for Bush, a triage nurse who gained her organizing chops during the Ferguson protests, and Wesley, whose office declined to charge Darren Wilson, the white officer who shot and killed 18-year-old Brown on August 9, 2014.
Hours before the polls closed on Aug. 6, Bush reflected on that seminal moment.
“Even though a decade has passed, we have to save life. So I’m glad to be in position with the movement, though we have so much further to go,” Bush told a group of Black journalists who attended a press conference hosted by Black Lives Matters Grassroots. “There are so many pieces of legislation we need to see happen. We won’t stop fighting. We won’t stop saying their names. That’s enough for us to put our names and reputations on the line.”
Unfinished Business for Michael Brown Sr.
Last year, family members of Brown and Rekia Boyd, shot and killed by Chicago police detective Dante Servin in 2012, filed a merit brief with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The brief argued that, by failing to hold Wilson and Servin accountable, the U.S. government committed human rights abuses against Brown and Boyd.
Michael Brown Sr., father of the late Brown, told reporters on Aug. 6 that those efforts bore no fruit. He went as far as to call his engagement with international bodies, including the United Nations, nothing more than a “free trip.”
Thousands of people — including Bush and independent presidential and vice presidential candidates Dr. Cornel West and Dr. Melina Abdullah — are expected to converge on Ferguson on Aug. 9 in commemoration of Michael Brown Jr.’s death. That morning, the elder Brown will lead community members from Normandy High School, where his son graduated from eight days before his death, to Canfield Drive, where his lifeless body laid on the ground for four hours.
Brown said he’ll provide remarks and invite community members to an event where they can learn about community resources. Since launching Chosen for Change, a nonprofit organization dedicated to holistic grief support and outreach to families who lost loved ones to police violence, Brown, his wife Cal Brown and others have united around healing and literacy.
A decade later, Brown said he sees some change in the streets of Ferguson.
“There’s nothing white standing out anymore,” Brown said. “Stop and frisk has stopped. Less crime and body-worn cameras are around. The residents aren’t being harassed like they’ve been.”
However, as Brown explained, there’s more work to be done to address more of the structural issues facing Black people in Ferguson. That can be done, he said, through the proper allocation of funds that continue to pour into the St. Louis suburb.
“Things are being put in place but not the right place,” he said. “We still have people’s boots on the ground orchestrating to get things in the right direction.”
For Brown, that problem lies at the feet of Ferguson Mayor Ella Jones, the city’s first-ever African-American executive.
“She won’t have a conversation; she’s whispering when she talks to me,” Brown said. “People are saying Mike Brown Jr.’s name but there’s no communication with the family and there’s no structure. They’re using dead bodies to build communities. It’s in bad condition, but they’re building on top of it.”
The Informer unsuccessfully attempted to gather comment from Ferguson Mayor Jones’ office.
Sam this is a great story. However, as a former congressional correspondent for a Black newspaper chain, I do keep up with Capitol Hill. There have been murmurs in Black St. Louis that Cori Bush didn’t have a good constituent service operation and that she didn’t pay enough attention to local needs. While AIPAC’s money was a factor, don’t forget that all politics is local and it appeared people were frustrated with her lack of attention to their needs.