ST. LOUIS — Four years ago, Cori Bush rode a wave of activist energy and unseated a longtime House incumbent. Now her own congressional career is in jeopardy against a county prosecutor in a race that will test the Democratic base’s appetite for a disruptive Squad member as party leaders are tacking to the center.
Bush’s opponent in next week’s primary, Wesley Bell, is casting the incumbent as ineffective and unnecessarily combative within her own party. He’s backed by pro-Israel groups and running on his record as a prosecutor in a community still reeling from a fatal police shooting 10 years ago.
And he’s gaining traction. Speaking to a group of roughly five dozen supporters who’d gathered in the verdant Tower Grove Park for a barbecue this past weekend, Bell promised to be a constructive lawmaker: “If you call me, I’m picking the phone up.”
Bush’s opposition to the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed last Congress had struck a nerve with some labor leaders, who felt their concerns about jobs were rebuffed by the progressive lawmaker. And although the war in Gaza has loomed over the race, it was the furthest thing from Bell’s supporters’ minds as they flipped hamburgers and turned hot dogs on the grill. For Delicia Simpson, 40, who was there with LiUNA’s Local 110, her decision to support Bell was entirely economic.
