'Black Lives Matter' Leader Wins Election to House, Adding to 'The Squad'
A Black Lives Matter activist has become Missouri’s first black congresswoman after an election night victory, and could become the fifth member of the so-called “squad.”
Cori Bush, a nurse and pastor, had garnered 78.9 percent of the vote in Missouri’s 1st Congressional District, with 88 percent of results in as of Wednesday morning, The New York Times reported.
“This is definitely a night to remember,” Bush told supporters during her victory speech, according to Fox News.
“This has been a historic day from the beginning to the end.”
The First. pic.twitter.com/h3o0GxeFLR
— Cori Bush (@CoriBush) November 4, 2020
Bush became an activist in 2014 after Michael Brown was shot and killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, according to Refinery 29.
She said was inspired to run for office after witnessing police brutality against Black Lives Matter protesters.
“I was maced and beaten by those same police officers in those same streets,” Bush has said, according to the New York Post.
“Six months from now, as the first black congresswoman in the entire history of Missouri, I will be holding every single one of them accountable.”
She added, “If you didn’t understand what happened, what was birthed right here in St. Louis, Missouri, in St. Louis County, in Ferguson, we’re about to show you.”
She unsuccessfully ran for Senate in 2016 and for House in 2018 but came out on top this year.
Bush defeated longtime incumbent Rep. William Lacy Clay in the August Democratic primary, taking 48.6 percent of the vote, according to the New York Post.
“Bush’s top goals include additional COVID relief, an eviction moratorium, Medicare for All, and an end to qualified immunity for police officers,” Refinery 29 reported.
Bush was endorsed by the Justice Democrats, who also supported Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 2018.
“If you don’t know, now you know: ‘The squad’ is here to stay, and it’s growing,” Justice Democrats executive director Alexandra Rojas said in August.
Reps. Ilhan Omar, Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley — the original members of the progressive “squad” — have all won re-election.
Bush is among three other newly elected progressives who may join the ranks of ‘the squad” — New York’s Jamaal Bowman and Mondaire Jones, and Illinois’ Marie Newman.
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