St. Louis Prosecutor Challenges Cori Bush in Dem House Primary, Citing Squad Member’s Israel Hostility

St. Louis county prosecutor Wesley Bell announced Monday that he will challenge Representative Cori Bush (D., Mo.) for her seat in the House — in part due to Bush’s hostility toward Israel — and drop his long-shot run against Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.).

Bell, 48, cited the need for American support of “democratic allies Ukraine and Israel,” along with the encouragement he has received from Democratic leaders and donors, in explaining his decision to challenge for Missouri’s first congressional district.

“Understand this unique place that we are with the world literally on fire,” Bell said. “I think that we need to make certain that we are providing that effective leadership, not only in our district but in D.C. and on the world stage,” Bell said in a speech announcing his decision.

Bush has taken heat from Democrats and Republicans alike for her stance on Israel. She recently wrote on social-media platform X, “We can’t be silent about Israel’s ethnic cleansing campaign. Babies, dead. Pregnant women, dead. Elderly, dead. Generations of families, dead. Millions of people in Gaza with nowhere to go being slaughtered. The U.S. must stop funding these atrocities against Palestinians.”

Bush, along with other members of the Squad and left-wing House Democrats, has been vocal in calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

She was also one of ten members of Congress who voted against a resolution to support Israel following attacks by Hamas that left an estimated 1,400 Israelis dead.

Bell has been critical of Bush’s stance on Hamas and Israel, asserting that the U.S. must not vacate its role as a world leader and support democracies abroad.

“Understand this unique place that we are with the world literally on fire…I think that we need to make certain that we are providing that effective leadership, not only in our district but in D.C. and on the world stage.”

Both Bell and Bush rose to political prominence after the Ferguson protests in 2014, which arose in response to the fatal shooting of a young black man, Michael Brown, by a white police officer, Darren Wilson. Wilson was later exonerated by both St. Louis County and the U.S. Justice Department of any wrongdoing in the encounter.

As an angry crowd surrounded officers barricaded in the police parking lot the day after the shooting, Bell stood in the middle and urged calm. Bell at the time was a municipal judge and attorney, and his father was a police officer. Bell was elected to the Ferguson City Council in the following year. Bush, on the other hand, was a prominent leader of many of the protests and regularly made calls to defund the police.

Bell, who pledged to reopen the case against Wilson when he became St. Louis county prosecutor, ultimately did not press charges against Wilson due to lack of evidence.

Bell became St. Louis county’s first black prosecutor in 2018, while Bush became the first black woman elected to the House from Missouri in 2020. Bush was easily reelected to the House in 2022 despite a challenge from Democratic state Senator Steve Roberts, who positioned himself as a more moderate alternative.

Bush’s office issued a statement saying that it was “disheartening that Prosecuting Attorney Bell has decided to abandon his US Senate campaign to become Missouri’s first Black Senator after less than five months, and has instead decided to target Missouri’s first Black Congresswoman.”