ST. LOUIS — Cori Bush and Wesley Bell both honed their leadership skills in Ferguson, Missouri, during the unrest that followed the shooting death of Michael Brown by a police officer 10 years ago. On Tuesday, they opposite to each other in a closely watched Democratic primary for Congress.
Bush faces a major financial challenge in her bid for a third term in Missouri’s 1st Congressional District, which includes St. Louis and some of its suburbs, including Ferguson. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s super political action committee has spent $8.5 million alone trying to oust Bush over her criticism of Israel after the October election attack by Hamas.
Friday marks the 10th anniversary of Brown’s death. The 18-year-old, who is black, was walking with a friend on Aug. 9, 2014, when a white officer, Darren Wilson, confronted them. Wilson said he fired in self-defense because Brown was so angry. Some witnesses said Brown, who was unarmed, put his hands up in surrender. Wilson was acquitted of misconduct and resigned. Brown’s death sparked months of protests.
Bush and Bell both became active, but in different ways.
Bush, 48, was a protest leader. She was outspoken and critical of how the police and courts treated black people. Her activism led to a failed race against longtime Democrat William Lacy Clay in the 1st District in 2018, before defeating him in 2020. She was easily re-elected in 2022.
Bell, 49, began hosting talks about community policing after Brown’s death. The attorney, who previously served as a city attorney and judge, successfully ran for a seat on the Ferguson City Council before defeating a seven-term sitting president St. Louis County District Attorney Bob McCulloch during the Democratic primary in August 2018.
As prosecutor, Bell reopened an investigation into Brown’s death. He announced in July 2020 that the investigation did not exonerate Wilson, but that there was not enough evidence to charge him.
“My heart breaks” for Brown’s parents, Bell said at the time. “I know this is not the outcome they were hoping for and their pain will last forever.”
Brown’s father, Michael Brown Sr., is featured in an ad for Bush.
“He used my family for power,” Brown says of Bell in the ad. “And now he’s trying to sell St. Louis.”
If Bush loses, she will become the second member of the progressive congressional group known as the team” to fall in a primary this year. In June, United Democracy Project — AIPAC’s super PAC — spent nearly $15 million to help defeat U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman, another Israel critic. Bowman lost to George Latimer, a pro-Israel centrist in New York.
In October, Bush called the Israeli retaliation a “campaign of ethnic cleansing.” Shortly after the Hamas attack on Israel, Bush wrote on social media that Israel’s “collective punishment of Palestinians for Hamas’s actions is a war crime.”
Her comments caused a backlasheven among some supporters in her district. Bell, who had planned a Senate campaign against Republican incumbent Josh Hawley, instead chose to challenge Bush. He told The Associated Press that Bush’s comments about Israel were “wrong and offensive.”
Bush responded that AIPAC’s donors support former President Donald Trump and other Republicans.
“This is just the beginning,” Bush told the AP. “Because if they can unseat me, they’ll go on to pursue more Democrats.”
Bush’s campaign has focused on what she has accomplished for St. Louis. She said her efforts have brought $2 billion to the 1st District and that it was her protest on the Capitol steps in 2021 that helped extend the federal eviction moratorium as part of the COVID-19 pandemic, helping thousands of St. Louis residents.
Bell has touted his own progressive credentials, noting that as a prosecutor he has said he would not prosecute abortion cases in a state that bans the procedure in most cases. He has set up diversion programs to direct people with mental health and substance abuse problems to treatment instead of prison. And his office has expanded efforts to investigate possible wrongful convictions.
Meanwhile, in Missouri’s 3rd District, the veteran U.S. representative retired. Blaine Luetkemeyer could be a test of Trump’s endorsement power.
Trump endorsed former Sen. Bob Onder in the GOP primary in the heavily Republican district. Luetkemeyer is backing another former senator, Kurt Schaefer.
