Pro-Israel advocacy groups are mounting a major financial offensive against Cori Bush as she attempts to reclaim her congressional seat in Missouri. The former representative is challenging incumbent Wesley Bell in the primary for Missouri's 1st District, setting up a rematch two years after she lost to him in a contest that became a national flashpoint over influence spending.
United Democracy Project, the super PAC arm of AIPAC, has already spent $865,000 on television advertisements supporting Bell, making it by far the largest outside spender in the race so far. The New Democrat Coalition's PAC has contributed $500,000, while Bell's own campaign has spent $475,000. Bush's campaign has managed just $30,000 in ad spending, with no outside groups backing her effort so far.
The spending disparity echoes the 2024 cycle, when AIPAC invested more than $9 million to defeat Bush. She had emerged as one of the most vocal congressional critics of Israel following the 2023 war with Hamas, while also facing an ethics scandal. Bell won that contest by roughly five percentage points.
Bush, a Democratic Socialists of America member, believes the landscape has shifted in her favor. She argues that voters in St. Louis are now angry about the scale of outside money that flooded the district during the last election. In conversations with constituents, she said many have expressed regret about not understanding what happened at the time.
"People are really upset that so much money came into our district and was used to influence who became the representative," Bush told reporters. "A lot of people have said to me, 'Cori, I just didn't know,' or 'I didn't understand what was happening at the time, and now I know.' And they're upset."
Justice Democrats, the left-wing group that has backed Bush, sees her comeback attempt as emblematic of a broader Democratic shift away from establishment politics. A spokesman for the organization said the former congresswoman represents the type of anti-corporate fighter that primary voters are demanding this cycle. Justice Democrats spent $2 million supporting Bush in the last election and said they plan to deploy significant resources in her rematch.
The primary is scheduled for August 4. Bush's campaign is gambling that the very spending that defeated her before may now backfire on her opponents as voters express frustration over outside interference in local elections.
Author James Rodriguez: "Bush's bet that AIPAC money has become radioactive in St. Louis is a high-stakes gamble, but it's one that could reshape how Democrats think about outside spending."
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