Cori Bush becomes second ‘Squad’ member ousted in Democratic primary

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Cori Bush, a leftwing representative from Missouri, has become the second member of the Democratic party’s progressive “Squad” to be ousted by a mainstream primary challenger this year.

Bush, a two-term representative and Black Lives Matter activist who stormed into Congress at the height of the country’s social justice upheaval, was defeated in the party primary on Tuesday by Wesley Bell, a local prosecutor. Bell’s campaign benefited from millions of dollars of support from the conservative pro-Israel lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

The margin was 51.2 per cent per cent to 45.6 per cent with more than 95 per cent of votes counted, according to the Associated Press.

Her defeat came about a month after New York’s Jamaal Bowman became the first member of the Squad to fall in a Democratic primary. Bowman was defeated by George Latimer, a local county executive, in what was the most expensive primary in the party’s history.

Both races showcased the fracture in the party between its establishment and a clique of younger progressives, led by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who entered Congress in recent years fired by concerns about racial and social justice.

Those divisions were also on display in the jockeying that preceded vice-president Kamala Harris’s selection of Minnesota governor Tim Walz as her running mate on Tuesday.

As with Bowman’s race, Israel and the war in Gaza served as a trigger that prompted Aipac-affiliated groups to deploy about $8mn in the primary against Bush, who alienated many American Jews by refusing to label Hamas a terrorist group after its October 7 attack on Israel.

The Aipac-funded advertising barrage steered clear of Washington’s Middle East policy, and instead accused Bush of placing ideology above the concerns of her local constituents.

Both she and Bowman voted against President Joe Biden’s signature infrastructure package, protesting against the exclusion of many social initiatives that had been shorn from the final bill. Bush has also attracted scrutiny over a federal investigation into her use of campaign funds.

Bush’s defeat will further embolden those in the Democratic party keen to stamp out a leftwing faction whose ranks tend to be far more critical of Israel. The next showdown will come in a week, when Ilhan Omar, the Minnesota representative who is one of the Squad’s most prominent figures, faces her own primary challenge.

Bush, a nurse and pastor, rose to prominence during the 2014 uprisings in Ferguson, Missouri, that were sparked by the police shooting of Michael Brown, a Black teenager.

She beat a 10-term Democratic incumbent on her second try, in 2020, in an election that was held just three months after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which touched off a national reckoning about race and justice. Missouri’s first district includes St Louis and its surroundings, including Ferguson. She was re-elected in the 2022 midterm by a strong margin.

Bell, who is also Black, is the chief prosecutor for St Louis County. He also defeated a longtime white incumbent when he won office in 2018.