A prominent member of the progressive “Squad” in Congress, Cori Bush, faces a difficult Democratic primary in St Louis on Tuesday after pro-Israel pressure groups spent millions of dollars to unseat her over criticisms of Israel’s war on Gaza.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) pumped more than $8.5m into the race in Missouri’s first congressional district in support of Bush’s rival, St Louis prosecutor Wesley Bell, through its campaign funding arm, the United Democracy Project (UDP).
The pro-Israel lobby group targeted Bush as one of the first members of Congress to call for a ceasefire following the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel. She condemned Hamas for its “appalling violations of human rights” in killing 1,139 people, mostly Israelis, and abducting hundreds of others. But Bush also infuriated some Jewish and pro-Israel groups by describing Israel’s subsequent attack on Gaza as “collective punishment against Palestinians” and a war crime.
Bush won her last primary, two years ago, by more than 30 percentage points. She took 73% of the vote in the general election in one of the safest Democratic seats in the country.
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But the flood of UDP money and other hostile spending has put Bush on the back foot with some polls showing she is the underdog in the race.
The UDP accounts for more than half of all the money spent on the race outside of the campaigns themselves. Much of it comes from billionaires who fund hardline pro-Israel causes and Republicans in other races, including some who have given to Donald Trump’s campaign.
The UDP’s spending to oust Bush is second only to the money it poured into a successful campaign to defeat another member of the “Squad,” New York congressman Jamaal Bowman, in a Democratic primary in June.
Bell has denied being recruited by pro-Israel groups to run against Bush, but he abandoned a challenge for the US Senate and entered the congressional race not long after Jewish organisations in St Louis began to seek a candidate to take on Bush after accusing her of “intentionally fuelling antisemitism”.
UDP has flooded St Louis with advertising hostile to Bush – although, as in other congressional races targeted by pro-Israel groups, it rarely mentioned the war on Gaza that has claimed nearly 40,000 Palestinian lives, mostly civilians, or her call for a ceasefire.
Instead, the campaign has focussed on Bush’s voting record in Congress, particularly her failure to support Joe Biden’s trillion-dollar infrastructure bill in 2021 and her support for the “defund the police” campaign. Bush has struggled to get her message across that the UDP is misrepresenting both situations.
She told the Guardian that the UDP’s support for Bell without talking about Israel “is confusing people”.
“They’re wondering why Wesley Bell is allowing himself to be bankrolled by Republicans. People are asking, is he a really Democrat? Some feel betrayed because he is allowing for Republicans to decide who is going to be their next representative. That benefits Republicans and that is shameful,” she said.
