https://19thnews.org/2024/08/cori-bush-wesley-bell-missouri-primary/

The St. Louis-area Squad member�s vote on the 2021 infrastructure bill is
being criticized by her Democratic opponent � and amplified by millions of
dollars in ads from pro-Israel groups.

ST. LOUIS � It was three years ago, but Rep. Cori Bush remembers it like
it was yesterday.

She was back in her St. Louis-area district with then-U.S. Labor Secretary
Marty Walsh for a roundtable about the care economy. She was just six
months into her first two-year House of Representatives term, and Congress
was debating how to move forward with President Joe Biden�s $4 trillion
investment plan for both physical and human infrastructure as the country
recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic.

A fast food worker who made $12.10 an hour and struggled to afford caring
for her family picked up the microphone and asked Bush and Walsh to listen
to her story, then to �make something happen.�

�She reached across the table and pointed directly at me � she pointed at
me, out of all of these people � and she said: �You don�t forget about
us,�� Bush told The 19th in a recent interview at her campaign office.

�It was so intense. � I�ll never forget it,� she added.

The votes that Bush cast in the months that followed on various
configurations of Biden�s economic agenda � and the role she played
fighting for the inclusion of progressive priorities as a member of the
high-profile Squad � have become central to her opponent�s case against
her. Now, with the August 6 primary imminent, the likelihood of Bush
returning to Congress is in doubt.

Specifically, Bush�s critics are highlighting the vote she cast that
November against the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a $1.2
trillion bipartisan plan to improve the country�s roads and bridges that
had none of the previously proposed caregiving components.

Democratic leaders had spent months trying to figure out the best path
forward, vacillating between passing a bipartisan package that jettisoned
the caregiving elements prioritized by progressives or a comprehensive but
partisan measure that was being blocked by two centrist Democratic
senators who have since left the party. The protracted and contentious
negotiations forced many lawmakers, including Bush, to make a call about
how to best shape their party�s future and serve their constituents: Get
in line or hold the line?

When the physical-infrastructure-only bill came to the floor, Bush said,
her choice was clear: �The thing is, we weren�t voting against the bill,
we were voting to hold the leverage so that both bills could be voted on
and passed because that was our chance: We had the House, we had the
Senate and we had the White House.�

�We need both of these investments: We need roads and child care; we need
bridges and homes; we need all of it,� Bush said.

Though Bush and five of her fellow Squad members held out and voted no on
the physical infrastructure legislation, Democrats got the bill over the
finish line with the help of 13 Republicans in the House and 19 in the
Senate. Like she feared, there was never another opening to seriously
revisit the caregiving measures.

Bush�s opponent, St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell, has cited her
�no� vote on infrastructure as evidence she is an ineffective legislator,
unresponsive to her constituents and not supportive of Biden�s economic
agenda as the two compete in a tight primary in a safe blue district.

�She�s working against the Democratic Party,� Bell said in an interview.
�She voted against the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which is
indefensible. � In our system of government, when do you ever get
everything you want? You can�t just throw the baby out with the bathwater,
you�ve got to work together.�

Bell�s criticism of Bush is being amplified by a more than $7 million
campaign by influential pro-Israel organizations, which late last year
announced a $100 million effort to replace Democrats deemed insufficiently
supportive of Israel. Among the top targets are Squad members, most of
whom called for a ceasefire in Gaza during the early days of the Israel-
Hamas war. The progressive group Justice Democrats, which recruited some
members of the Squad to run for Congress, has spent $1.8 million to
support Bush in the race.

The pro-Israel groups� ads don�t attack Bush�s stance on U.S. support for
Israel and instead feature her votes on infrastructure and other economic
policies such as raising the debt ceiling. A recent mailer sent to voters
in Missouri�s 1st Congressional District states, �When Cori Bush voted
against the infrastructure deal, she voted against: money for bridges and
roads; replacing dangerous lead pipes; thousands of jobs for St. Louis.�

The groups behind the campaign, the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee (AIPAC) and its affiliated political spending committee, United
Democracy Project (UDP), along with the Democratic Majority for Israel
(DMFI), have already notched a victory this year, collectively spending
nearly $15 million to oust fellow Squad member Rep. Jamaal Bowman in a New
York primary that ended up being the most expensive in history.

DMFI President Mark Mellman predicted after Bowman�s loss that Bush would
be next, telling ABC News that she uses �the same kind of vituperative,
anti-Israel rhetoric, the same kind of anti-Israel votes, the same kind of
divisive approach to politics on this issue and on broader Democratic
issues.� At the time, DMFI polling showed Bell with a one-point lead over
Bush. Updated polling they released this week showed his lead has grown to
six points.

The pro-Israel groups historically support Democrats. But in recent years,
as they began wading into Democratic primary contests, the amount of money
coming from Republican donors increased. Given that the groups nearly
always back the more moderate candidate in a race, progressives have
criticized their efforts as giving conservative mega donors a back-door
route to pick winners and losers in Democratic primary elections.

The prosecutor and the �politivist�
Bush and Bell, who are both Black, have political r�sum�s that start at
the same place: the racial justice protests in Ferguson. Those began on
August 10, 2014, the day after a White police officer fatally shot Black
teenager Michael Brown, 18, and continued with varying degrees of
intensity for several months as the city, then the country, debated issues
such as race, equity and policing.

Bush, now 48, grew up in St. Louis County, watching her father serve as an
alderman and mayor of the city of Northwoods, Missouri. She earned a
nursing degree, founded a church and served as its pastor. Bell, now 49,
grew up nearby, the son of a police officer and a civil servant. He went
to law school, then worked as a public defender, criminology professor at
a community college and a municipal court judge.

During the Ferguson uprising, Bush used her medical training to serve as a
triage nurse for the activists out in the streets. Bell often acted as a
mediator between the protesters and the government entities and officials
trying to respond to the unrest.

Kayla Reed, who protested after Brown�s death and went on to co-found the
grassroots racial justice organization Action St. Louis, said she doesn�t
remember the specific day she met Bush but recalled seeing her wearing
scrubs.

�I came to really appreciate the clarity she had, wanting to be in the
protest space, fighting for justice in the case of Michael Brown � but
also her very specific desire to show up for the community that had been
exposed to that trauma,� she said. �I think Wesley played a different
role, Cori protested as a protester, his desire was to be an
intermediary.�

https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/cori-bush-04.jpg?w=1024

Just before the protests, Bell made an unsuccessful bid for the St. Louis
County Council. After, he was elected in 2015 to the Ferguson City
Council, beating a first-time candidate popular with the protesters. Three
years later, he was elected county prosecutor, running on a platform of
community-based policing and reforming the cash bail system, with backing
from many of the activist groups that came into being after the protests.
He said he would open a new inquiry into Brown�s death, and he beat 25-
year incumbent Democrat Bob McCulloch, who did not prosecute the police
officer who shot Brown.

Bell describes himself as a progressive prosecutor and touts a diversion
program that he says dramatically reduced recidivism rates in cases
related to substance abuse and mental health. A report published this week
by a coalition of organizations in the racial justice and legal aid space,
some of which worked to elect Bell, concluded his prosecutorial tenure has
yielded more mixed results � the county jail�s population is now as high
as it was when McCulloch left office, with about 60 percent more Black
women behind bars than one year ago. Bell has said the report was prepared
by his political rivals � and Bush�s supporters.

Bush, after Ferguson, competed in the 2016 Democratic primary for U.S.
Senate, coming in a distant second to a former secretary of state, who
lost that November to incumbent Republican Sen. Roy Blunt. Two years
later, she launched a House primary campaign against 20-year incumbent
Rep. Lacy Clay, whose father had held the seat for 30 years before him,
but lost by nearly 20 points. In 2020, she tried again and won.

The first thing Bush introduced as a member of Congress was a resolution
that would have directed the House Ethics Committee to investigate the
actions of any of her new colleagues who sought to overturn Biden�s valid
2020 victory during the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. During her three
years in the House, Bush has focused on affordable housing, including
preventing evictions, as well as abortion rights and reproductive health.
She has described herself as a �politivist,� because she has continued to
engage in protest and activism as a member of Congress.

Bush�s and Bell�s paths converged again last autumn when, shortly after
Bush cosponsored a resolution calling for a Gaza ceasefire, Bell announced
he would challenge her in the Democratic primary to represent Missouri�s
1st Congressional District.

It came as a surprise because just four months before, Bell had said that
he would seek the Democratic nomination to run against Republican U.S.
Sen. Josh Hawley, a quest that in the deep red state was all but certain
to fail. As he was exploring that bid, Bell called Bush to ask for advice
and support. She offered to connect him with key senators, as well as to
the party�s political arm that handles Senate races, and said they could
discuss an endorsement at a later date. Bush initially described the
conversation to The 19th in mid July. Then, this week, Drop Site News
published an audio recording of the exchange in which the two also discuss
speculation that Bell might instead challenge Bush for her House seat.
�Don�t even think for even a second that that is the case,� Bell told her.
�I�m telling you right now, I�m telling you on my word: I am not running
against you. That is not happening.�

Before the recording was released, Bell told The 19th that his decision to
switch to the House was prompted by many things, including conversations
he had early in his Senate bid with constituents. He said the �recurring
theme� was that they did not have a good working relationship with Bush.

�I know that from my vantage point, the congresswoman has never really
worked with our office � I didn�t know if that was throughout the
district. I know that I�m in public safety, and I know she�s a �defund the
police� person, so she doesn�t work with us because we enforce� the law,
Bell said.

Bell said he was also encouraged to run by people in Democratic politics
in Washington.

�It was like: OK, you might have a shot at the Senate, it�s going to be
tough as a Democrat in Missouri right now, but it�s possible � but you�ve
got a problem at home, your congresswoman isn�t working with anyone,� he
said.

Bell said the argument that Bush wasn�t being responsive to her
constituents is the one that �pushed me over the finish line.� It is a
criticism that he has reiterated during his campaign, and it has been
echoed by the interest groups supporting him.

Who�s backing Bush and Bell
Bell�s challenge of Bush has forced Democrats and progressive groups to
pick between them � including those who have supported them both in the
past. In Bell�s corner are local elected officials and labor unions that
include the local chapters of the International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers, the Sheet Metal Workers and the United Food and Commercial
Workers. Bush has her own roster of electeds behind her, along with SEIU
Healthcare, National Nurses United and the Communication Workers of
America.

Megan Green, the president of the Board of Alderman, the legislative body
of the city of St. Louis, has known Bush and Bell since the Ferguson
protests, in which she also participated. Over the years, she has
supported them both. When Bell ran for prosecutor, for example, Green
knocked doors on his behalf. �I did so in large part because our local
Black Lives Matter movement felt like he would be the candidate to reform
the prosecutor�s office and center the demands of the movement,� she told
The 19th.

Now that they�re both in the same House race, Green is backing Bush, whom
she has worked with on issues that range from crafting a bill of rights
for unhoused people to the city�s aging water infrastructure to helping
Washington University students arrested for protesting Israel�s bombing of
Gaza. Green questions why Bell decided to �go after a progressive Black
woman, rather than challenge the Republican� and sees the matchup as an
unorthodox one in which the challenger is the well-financed candidate of
the establishment, while the incumbent is the visionary disrupter. �I
think the biggest issue in the race is a choice between a vision and
status quo � Cori is a visionary, she is the moral compass � she is not
afraid to talk about uncomfortable truths or make us have to challenge
some of our previously held belief systems in order to be better people,�
Green said.

The Missouri AFL-CIO, which endorsed Bush in her 2020 and 2022 races, and
Bell in his prosecutor�s race, has remained neutral during this year�s
primary. But when The 19th spoke to Missouri AFL-CIO President Jake Hummel
at the St. Louis Building & Construction Trades Council�s recent annual
golf outing, at which Bell accepted a leadership award, Hummel said that
he personally supports Bell�s candidacy. �Congresswoman Bush�s vote on
President Biden�s infrastructure bill is an unforgivable act for me � I
represent hundreds of thousands of construction workers across Missouri,�
Hummel said.

Hummel understands why some of the AFL-CIO�s member unions have endorsed
Bush and others Bell. But, having served in the statehouse, Hummel
rejected the idea that Bush�s �no� vote on the infrastructure bill gave
her any additional clout during subsequent negotiations over the
caregiving components. �My conviction stands. If that was something that
was important to people in my district, I wouldn�t have voted that way
just for political expediency, or to make myself look good to a different
subset of voters,� he said.

An abortion access hub
Bush�s supporters and core constituencies, as you might expect, tell a
very different story about constituent work than the one presented by Bell
and his backers. A legislator can respond to a district�s crumbling roads
by voting for infrastructure spending � but a legislator can also help
voters navigate the loss of abortion rights by creating a dashboard to
help them access health care after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v.
Wade, as Bush did two years ago.

Missourians working in the reproductive rights space in particular point
to Bush�s willingness to tell her personal story � she has talked about
getting multiple abortions, including one after she was raped at 17 � as
one reason they consider her a champion for their cause and not merely a
supporter. On the day the court decided Dobbs v. Jackson Women�s Health
Organization, for example, Bush was at a Planned Parenthood in the
district and poised for immediate response.

�I walked straight out of there and hopped on television, on the other
side of the gate right there at Planned Parenthood. And we stood there all
day long. And we did interview after interview, making sure people knew,
hey, you can still have access today, you can still get treated,� Bush
said. �Then we said, �Hey, we�re going to do a rally right here at Planned
Parenthood, show up.� Hundreds of people showed up. People were
heartbroken. Fathers were heartbroken for their daughters, you know,
coming up, hugging me, saying, �How did this happen to my daughter?� We
were able to have that community, right there. Wesley Bell? Did he show up
at that rally that evening? No.�

Bell was one of dozens of elected prosecutors who in the days after Dobbs
said they would not prosecute people seeking or providing abortions; he
has shown support for reproductive justice groups aiming to get an
abortion rights initiative onto Missouri ballots by dropping off cookies
at petition-signing events, and by hosting one of his own.

The Rev. Dr. Love Holt, a trained nurse who works at a doulas
organization, said in the hours following the court�s Dobbs decision, she
was �receiving a lot of phone calls and people were afraid, they were 100
percent in fear, they were confused.�

The hub from Bush�s campaign office was the resource they needed. �With
all of the work that she�s done, she�s collaborated with so many experts
on the ground, she has really spent time getting all the work in � so now
we trust Cori, Cori and her team, to provide us with accurate services and
information. And that one project really brought down the walls in the
minds and hearts of lower-income communities like mine,� Holt said.

In the weeks after Dobbs, Bush introduced five pieces of legislation
related to reproductive health.

Primary elections are opportunities for base voters to decide what
direction their party should take by picking leaders who bring different
legislative priorities and contrasting leadership styles � they nearly
always, to varying degrees, offer a choice between an institutionalist and
an activist. Bell and his backers have framed the matchup as one between a
party loyalist (Bell) and a rabble-rousing lawmaker who isn�t responsive
to voters� concerns (Bush). Bush and her orbit see the contest as one
between an activist who is going to push the Democratic Party to
prioritize the needs of its most vulnerable (Bush) and an opportunist most
interested in accumulating political power (Bell).

Last week, Michael Brown Sr. waded into the primary race, nearly a decade
after his son was killed, inspiring an uprising that sparked both now-
rival candidates� political careers. In a video endorsement, Brown stands
beside his daughter, then Bush.

�After the murder of my son, Wesley Bell promised to pursue justice for my
family � I feel like he lied to us, he never brought charges against the
killer, he never walked the streets of Ferguson with me, he failed to
reform the office, he used my family for power � and now he�s trying to
sell out St. Louis,� Brown said.

--
We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
stupid people won't be offended.

Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem. It has none.

No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.
Officially made Nancy Pelosi a two-time impeachment loser.

Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
fiasco, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.

President Trump boosted the economy, reduced illegal invasions, appointed
dozens of judges and three SCOTUS justices.