Progressive Spotlight: Cori Bush.

Rep. Cori Bush, the progressive Democrat from St. Louis whose rise coincided with the racial justice uprisings that rocked the country in 2020, has vowed to fight the insidious cancer that is big money in the U.S. political system when she leaves office at the end of the year.

Bush made her intentions clear after she lost her re-election bid to ostensible reform prosecutor Wesley Bell earlier this month.

Bush was the latest Squad member who came under fierce attacks from AIPAC, the influential Israel lobby, and its allies in the last few months of the race.

As in the case with her fellow Squad member Rep. Jamaal Bowman, Bush’s backers couldn’t keep up with the torrent of spending from AIPAC, its super PAC and other outside groups. According to The Intercept, the organizations backing Bell had a four-to-one spending advantage over Bush’s campaign. Bowman was similarly outspent by the Israel lobby and lost his re-election bid earlier this summer.

Both Bush and Bowman have been outspoken about Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians—an allegation that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said was “plausible” in permitting South Africa’s genocide case against Israel to move forward in January, which will likely take years.

More than 40,000 Palestinians have been brutally slaughtered since last October—a number that experts say is likely higher when you account for the thousands in Gaza who are missing or buried in the extensive rubble. New horrors continue to emerge each day, including recent revelations of Palestinian detainees being physically and psychologically brutalized and sexually assaulted in Israeli torture camps.

After Israel’s assault on Gaza drew widespread condemnation during the initial wave of attacks last year, including from many progressives, AIPAC reportedly set out to destroy the Squad—which it’s doing—by overwhelming its opponents through its massive financial and influence advantage. The budgeted amount to take out progressives in Congress? $100 million.

Ironically, the effort to buy elections came as the then-Democratic standard bearer, President Joe Biden, said democracy was on the ballot in 2024. Interestingly, the democracy warriors that make up the Democratic Party establishment have largely remained silent on the critical issue of money in politics. Well, just about everyone.

On Day 2 of the 2024 Democratic National Convention, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont called on Democrats to get “big money out of our political process. Billionaires in both parties should not be able to buy elections, including primaries.”

“Speak on it,” Bush posted on X, sharing Sanders’ message, a common refrain from the self-professed Democratic socialist. Bush clearly understands as well as anyone the power of money in politics. In a race dominated by outside spending against her, she lost by less than 7,000 votes. And just days before the primary election, Bush accused those spending on Bell’s behalf of “blatant racism” for distributing mailers that included “distorted features that make her forehead look bigger and elongate her features,” according to The Intercept.

“I shouldn’t have to ask my opponent to condemn his biggest funders for putting out an ad like this and to apologize to the people of this district,” Bush said in response, referencing the mailers reportedly financed by United Democracy Project (UDP), AIPAC’s super PAC.

Bush’s concession speech was anything but. She galvanized supporters by pledging to continue fighting on their behalf and to take on the big money interests that came for her.

“Pulling me away from my position as Congresswoman—all you did was take some of the strings off,” she declared.

“AIPAC,” she yelled into the mic, “I’m coming to tear your kingdom down.”

The line set off raucous applause from her supporters, who seemed to internalize her defiance.

“And let me put all of these corporations on notice. I’m coming after you, too. But I’m not coming by myself. I’m coming with all the people that’s in here that’s doing the work,” Bush said. “What you didn’t wanna do was allow me to get radicalized even more. Because this is the thing, I ain’t scared. I don’t fear you. I don’t fear you. What my issue is—what my issue is—is my people not getting what they need. And at the end of the day, whether I’m Congresswoman or not I’m still going to take care of my people. And so let me say this: Because your side was so weak, you had to spend $19 million.”

“When I unseated a 52-year-old family dynasty, we did it with $2 million because we spoke about who we are, what we plan to do and we came from a place of integrity and character, and it only took $2 million,” she said of her primary win over long-time incumbent William Lacy Clay in 2020. Clay succeeded his father, Bill Clay, who served the same district for more than three decades.

Bush added: “It costs a lot of money to lie.”

Her supporters then broke into song, with the lyrics from Archie Eversole’s “We Ready” ringing out: “We ready. We ready. We ready. For y’all.”

Many are familiar with Bush’s bio. Before earning a seat in Congress, she lived out of her car after the Bush family was evicted from their home. She became a well-known activist in Missouri following the police killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson in 2014. Brown’s death, along with the NYPD killing of Eric Garner in Staten Island, sparked massive protests across the country.

Bush is still fighting. And as she said on the night she lost her election, the fight against corporate and monied interests isn’t about her. It’s for all of us.

Sounds like that’s how you stand up for democracy.

Image Sources

• Campaign logo via coribush.org. Changes were made.
• House Creative Committee, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Changes were made.