Cori Bush is making her case for a comeback

This column first appeared in The Amendment, a newsletter by Errin Haines, The 19th’s editor-at-large. Subscribe today to get early access to her analysis.

On a hot summer afternoon with 10 days to go until the August 4 Missouri primary, Cori Bush took a break from the campaign trail to chat with a man sitting alone next to a cart full of his belongings.

Two decades before she was elected as the first Black woman to represent Missouri in Congress, Bush experienced homelessness, living in a car with her ex-husband and small children after they were evicted multiple times. As a congresswoman, she slept on the steps of the U.S. Capitol for three nights, leading a successful protest calling on lawmakers to reinstate a moratorium on federal evictions. 

She had just rallied a group of supporters headed out to canvass on her behalf when her instincts as a community organizer kicked in. The man, who had already been in the park before the volunteers arrived, told Bush that he stayed to hear what she had to say. He offered her encouragement in the final days of the campaign. 

In the home stretch of the race, the exchange was a reminder of why she decided to run for her old seat after being defeated two years ago. I sat down with her last weekend to hear from her after visiting the district to hear from voters.

“I had to run again, first because the community asked me to run,” Bush said. “I have had people stop their cars and jump out of their cars to tell me to run. I’ve had people stop me at gas stations. That’s what first tugged at me to want to run. I have been able to continue to do things on the ground, but that’s who I was before I ever went to Congress, before I ever even decided to run for office, before I ever knew I would even think about running for office. I was working to help get people out of sex trafficking. I was working with our unhoused community. I was connecting them to resources.”

In 2020, Bush took that lived experience — combined with her prominent activism during the 2014 Ferguson protests over the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown — to Congress, unseating a 10-term congressman from a Black political dynasty in the state. By 2024, she was the incumbent ousted by voters seeking change, beaten by former St. Louis County prosecutor Wesley Bell, who had entered politics after his own activism in Ferguson.

The August 4 primary is a rematch between Bush and Bell and a test of whether their district will again vote for change — but this time, in a familiar candidate. 

Bell’s 2024 victory was funded in large part by the powerful pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC, which funneled more than $15 million into the race. Bush — who has been an outspoken critic of Israel and supporter of Palestinian rights — became an AIPAC target after she introduced a resolution for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

In the nearly three years since the war began, the national climate has shifted as Americans have taken a more unfavorable view of the Israeli government. The race is again being influenced by AIPAC funding, though to a lesser extent this cycle. 

There is little public polling on the race, but both candidates have predicted a close race. Supporters say Bell has been a visible congressman during his time in office. He defeated Bush in 2024 by a six-point margin.

Missouri’s 1st Congressional District is the most Democratic in the state, meaning that the winner of Tuesday’s contest will likely be its new representative.

After multiple cycles of wins and reaching record representation for Black women in Congress, Black women will not make significant gains in the 2026 midterms, but a Bush primary victory on Tuesday could help hold the line. Black women did not set new records as candidates for U.S. House this year, with only 112 Black women running, down from the record of 134 set in 2022, according to the Center for American Women in Politics.

Angela Spotts voted for Bush in 2020 and has knocked doors for the candidate five times this cycle. The 64-year-old South City resident said Bush “fights for all the rights I care about,” from speaking out on the conflict in Gaza, to pushing back against the immigration raids happening in cities across the country, to fighting to expand Medicaid.

“I’ve got a disabled sister, and I turn 65 in December,” Spotts said. “I want my tax dollars going to things that help us. She’s for our city, she knows what it’s like, she understands poverty.”

Bush lists among her accomplishments as a congresswoman helping to bring $2 billion in funding to the district; supporting issues like the Equal Rights Amendment and access to medication abortion; and introducing legislation questioning the involvement of members of Congress after the January 6, 2021, insurrection in the U.S. Capitol — which happened on her third day in office. 

“The activist brings that constant push, that moxie, that persistence,” Bush said. “The legislator, they have the power of the pen and the purse. They have the letterhead. So when you put the two of them together, then you can actually use that push to bring about the change. You don’t miss people the same way that you miss people when you’re not connected to the ground, when you’re not an organizer.”

At a candidate meet-and-greet at Black-owned restaurant Euphoria Kitchen and Kocktails, Bush cast herself to a room full of veteran activists as a fighter willing to challenge the status quo and the administration’s “manufactured chaos.” 

“The fight does not end because I got my feelings hurt,” she told the nodding crowd. “If you’re a true fighter, you get knocked down, and I got back up.”

Kia Caldwell was a new resident of St. Louis a year into Bush’s first term and was disappointed by her loss. The Washington University professor of African-American studies said this year’s race is critical to her, as democracy is one of her main priorities as a voter.

“Cori understands that,” said Caldwell, 55. “She brings conscience to politics, which is really missing right now, understanding people who are struggling and being left behind. This is like a people’s campaign — the people against the money. If we truly believe in democracy, we’ve gotta make this happen.”

Speaking out and fighting to get things done is what Bush says she’ll do again if reelected, and what she believes the role requires and is missing in her absence. Bush said voters can expect her to fight for more relief for victims of the devastating 2025 tornado that many residents are still recovering from, to protect Medicaid and to push for the Equal Rights Amendment to finally and fully become law. 

Bush said her regret from her time in office is that she didn’t push even harder.

“Leaders lead from the front, not from the middle or the back,” she said. “Sometimes it means that you have to take the hits. Because I got such a hit, so much so to where I lost my seat, I look back and say that I could have pushed harder. What could I have done to get the message out more?”

Bush’s stance hasn’t changed out of office. Whether and how much voters’ stances have changed will decide whether she returns to office.

“I think the country has changed,” Bush said. “They want the funding here. They want to keep St. Louis dollars, they want to keep First District dollars here. My base of support are those who do not live in a place of hate.”