Former St. Louis Congressmember Cori Bush Runs for Seat Again After AIPAC Targeted Her in 2024

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This is Democracy Now!, DemocracyNow.org. I’m Amy Goodman with Juan González. We spend the rest of the hour with former Democratic congresswoman for Missouri and current candidate for Congress, Cori Bush. First elected to the U.S. House in 2020 to represent St. Louis and the surrounding areas—represents St. Louis and Ferguson—Cori Bush is seeking to reclaim her former congressional seat after losing to her opponent, Congressmember Wesley Bell, in a heated Democratic primary in 2024.

The super PAC affiliated with AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, spent more than $8 million to unseat Congressmember Bush over her criticism of Israel’s war on Gaza. When she was first elected to Congress in 2020, she was a single mom and a nurse. She was also formerly unhoused and a leader in the 2014 Ferguson uprising over the police killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown. She joins us now in our New York City studio. Welcome to Democracy Now! You lost your seat in Congress but you are aiming to take it back. Why? What do you feel needs to happen right now?

CORI BUSH: First of all, I believe that the seat was stolen. What I mean by that is the people of St. Louis did not make the decision based upon truth, on what they believe would be someone else coming in that was going to do a better job, get things done quicker. They made the decision to elect someone else based on lies, deceit. A bunch of ads and a total of $15 million—including AIPAC and their affiliates and their allies, $15 million spent on the airwaves, spent on radio, internet—saying that Cori Bush, she’s basically mean to Joe Biden. She’s not a real Democrat. Just spewing lies and misinformation. And there was just so much. $15 million in the St. Louis media market is just, it was really heavy.

But the thing is, I was doing the work for my community. I was doing the work for the district. I was doing the work for this country. And I was doing exactly what I said that I would do when I was running, even before I started running. I was championing the Equal Rights Amendment, championing houseleessness, and a livable wage, Medicare for All, and so many other areas. Championing reparations. And actually showing up for my community.

The thing is this. I was a fighter in Congress before it was cool again, I’ll say. A fighter where people felt like, well, Cori Bush, you’re just a little too aggressive. Why would you camp out on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to get an extension of the eviction moratorium in 2021? Don’t you know that’s undignified to camp out? But to me what was undignified was allowing 11 million people to become unhoused during a deadly pandemic when we just needed more results from our federal government. Seven thousand of those people in my district.

So I’m running again because the person in the seat, he’s not meeting the moment. He’s someone that was basically placed there to quiet Cori Bush, placed there to stop a movement, placed there because they didn’t want someone speaking out for the people of Palestine, speaking out for human rights and civil rights. They didn’t want someone who was coming against Project 2025. They didn’t want that loud voice. But that’s what they’re about to get again.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Also, a report by Axios says that the autopsy by the Democratic National Committee on the 2024 election that has not yet been released concluded that Kamala Harris lost significant support because of the administration’s policy on Gaza. Is the Democratic Party heading in the same direction again?

CORI BUSH: I would hope not. I hope they’re listening. And even though that autopsy has not really been released, but for us to have the information that we do have, we have to listen. I think back to when President Biden was running in 2020 and we were in a pandemic but people showed out in huge numbers because we were already—millions of people were hitting the streets after the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and so many others. People were hitting the streets and we were looking for someone that would at least be amenable to what we wanted to see as far as police accountability. And so we showed up to support that candidate and that was Joe Biden. Right now, what people have to see is people sat out in 2024 but—people sat it out saying, “Hey, listen to us,” and they didn’t feel heard. And they weren’t heard. So now, pay attention. Listen now and don’t blame it on the people when one or two other people could have made a different decision.

AMY GOODMAN: Interesting you’re here in New York as Mayor Mamdani just met with President Trump again yesterday talking about housing, an issue that you were one of the major proponents of when you were in Congress. Cori Bush, former Democratic congresswoman from Missouri, hopes to take her seat again. First elected in 2020. This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman with Juan González for another edition of Democracy Now!