Disgraced Anti-Israel Former 'Squad' Member Loses Comeback Attempt in Resounding Fashion
It remains to be seen whether or not Tuesday was good or bad for the cadre of Democrats who seem to, very mysteriously, have an animus toward the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and virtually no other lobbying group that encourages better U.S. ties with foreign powers.
However, we can say one thing for certain: It wasn’t a great night for grifting bodyguards with odd attachments, financial and romantic, to former members of the so-called “Squad.”
In a comeback attempt that was widely seen as a barometer of just how far the anti-AIPAC backlash would go in the Democratic Party, ex-Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri was defeated soundly in her attempt to reclaim her old congressional seat.
With 99 percent of the votes counted as of Wednesday morning, incumbent Rep. Wesley Bell had 59.2 percent of the vote to Bush’s 36.9 percent. The race had been called by the Associated Press on Tuesday night.
Given that the St. Louis-area district leans heavily Democratic, this all but assures him of a second term.
Bush, a nurse and a community activist, had come to prominence during the 2014 unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, after the death of Michael Brown. She grifted her way into various campaigns, all losing at the primary stage, until the Summer of Floyd™ allowed her an upset in Missouri’s 1st Congressional District.
Bush then became a member of the soi-disant “Squad” along with Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, among other undesirables. Even in that decidedly non-august company, she managed to make a wreck of herself with personal scandals and untenable political positions.
She first came under scrutiny when she told people to “suck it up” when it came to defunding the police despite the fact that she had wildly overspent on her own security. Then we found out why: She was romantically involved with one member of her security staff, Cortney Merritts, who she eventually married. It didn’t help that he didn’t hold a security license, either, and hadn’t since 2012.
At one point in 2024, she was under investigation from the Department of Justice, Federal Election Commission, and House Ethics Committee for her spending on security.
And then there was her criticism of Israel, which went far beyond the normal “I’m not an anti-Semite, but that Bibi…” style of rubbish.
Before her 2024 primary defeat, she refused to call Hamas a terror organization, comparing them to Black Lives Matter protesters: “We were considered black identity extremists, and all we were doing was trying to get peace.”
“Have they hurt people? Absolutely. Has the Israeli military hurt people? Absolutely,” she added.
That was enough for pro-Israeli groups to back her challenger, Mr. Bell, who won by a 51.2 percent to 45.6 percent margin.
In the wake of her 2024 loss, she said that voters and outside groups may have believed they were “pulling me away from my position as congresswoman, [when] all you did was take some of the strings off.”
“Because now, there are some strings that I have attached. And as much as I love my job, all they did was radicalize me, and now they should be afraid,” she continued.
“They’re about to see this other Cori, this other side… And let me say this: AIPAC, I’m coming to tear your kingdom down!”
Cori Bush defiant in defeat: “All they did was radicalize me, so now they need to be afraid.”
“They about to see this other Cori, this other side,” she said. “AIPAC, I’m coming to tear your kingdom down.” pic.twitter.com/690T0aEhmZ
— Mark Maxwell (@MarkMaxwellTV) August 7, 2024
And then she found out that nobody cared about that other side, so she ran for office again, apparently because other anti-Semitic candidates who talked inordinately and at great length about AIPAC had done some of that tearing-kingdom-down stuff for her. She was hopeful that this would make her candidacy this time a bit more successful.
“I was pretty much isolated… because people were afraid that they would have problems if they associated with me,” Bush said of the 2024 race before Tuesday’s primary, according to The Washington Post. “Having so much money spent from AIPAC and those other groups against a Democrat, it made some Democrats feel like, well, I don’t want that ire coming my way.”
But things had changed, and she had a coalition.
I’m so proud to have the support of leaders from across St. Louis and the country as we fight to abolish ICE, build a Medicare for All system, and deliver a Green New Deal.
Today, we’ll show organized money that they can’t beat organized people. pic.twitter.com/G2krj3l4tL
— Cori Bush (@CoriBush) August 4, 2026
Bush was right; things had changed. She lost by over 22 points, not just over five points.
This couldn’t have happened to a better woman. I may not agree with Rep. Bell’s politics, but he gave the perfect epitaph for Bush’s political career: “She’s not a serious candidate,” he said in an interview last month, according to the Associated Press.
“In this election, the choices are clear. I wake up every day working for St. Louis, and the folks in St. Louis know that I’m going to wake up working for them. And then we’ve got an opponent, Cori, who wakes up thinking about Cori. And we’ve seen it over and over. And that’s why she was fired.”
Indeed. Shame about the loss, though. Wonder how she’s going to pay for her husb– I mean, security now.
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