The primary race for Missouri’s House District 1 was supposed to be a tight one between Cori Bush and Wesley Bell. It… was not.

Cori Bush (D-BLM), currently under investigation by the House Ethics Committee, the DOJ, and the FEC for using campaign money to pay her now-husband for personal security, lost by 14 points to Wesley Bell.

Now, this doesn’t change the numbers in the House – this is a primary race, D-01 in Missouri covers the city of St. Louis and is solidly blue. Bell is a Democrat with sufficient progressive credentials that will keep him in lockstep with Nancy Pelosi and Hakeem Jeffries in the House. What this DOES change is the makeup of The Squad. When Cori Bush was elected four years ago on the strength of her Ferguson/BLM protest credentials, she immediately found common cause with AOC, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib in The Squad. After the Hamas invasion, massacre, and kidnappings on October 7th, Bush let all of her anti-Semitism hang out with the entire Squad. She recently warned about labeling Hamas as “terrorists” – which her campaign immediately tried to walk back.

The Squad’s biggest boogeyman has been AIPAC – the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Supporting AIPAC used to be a bipartisan no-brainer, and something that Democrats had no problem with. Then The Squad became a force within the hard left of the Democrat party, and started kicking up enough of a fuss that longtime Democrats were cowed. So AIPAC, like any other political action committee, took a look at the most vulnerable members of The Squad and decided to support their primary challengers. Jamaal Bowman went down first. Cori Bush was next, and according to the New York Times, AIPAC and other pro-Israel groups put more than $8 million into this one primary race.

On Tuesday, Ms. Bush will face Mr. Bell, a Black county prosecutor who is pitching himself as progressive but pragmatic, and whose campaign is financed almost entirely by the pro-Israel lobby. The case he is mounting against Ms. Bush has little to do with Israel; he argues that she is ineffective, prioritizes her “squad” fame in Congress over local results, and showed poor judgment as a legislator, in voting against President Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure law.

Marshall Wittmann, a spokesman for AIPAC, called Ms. Bush a lawmaker “aligned with the anti-Israel extremist fringe,” noting she was one of just 10 members of Congress to vote against a resolution expressing solidarity with and pledging U.S. support for Israel and condemning Hamas’s actions days after the group attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing roughly 1,200 and taking hundreds more hostage.

“Democratic voters are sending the message that it is entirely consistent with progressive values to support Israel as it battles Iranian terrorist proxies,” Mr. Wittman added.

Mark Mellman, a Democratic pollster and the president of Democratic Majority for Israel, said Ms. Bush had been a target for years because of her stance on the country, but votes against popular Democratic initiatives made her more vulnerable this cycle.

“We’re taking advantage of that,” he said. And even if the Israel-Hamas war is not a central concern in St. Louis, Mr. Mellman said progressives like Ms. Bush “have chosen to make this issue central to them.”

“That’s a choice that they made,” he said. “It’s core to who they are.”

Did that money boost Wesley Bell’s chances in the primary? Absolutely. Everyone knows that. But Cori Bush has her own problems that have nothing to do with Israel or Hamas, and that easily could have influenced voters as well. But you would never know that from her “concession” speech last night, when it was clear she had been defeated in the primary.

Bush, in a fiery concession speech, said she still has work to do, even if she’ll no longer be in Congress.

“At the end of the day, whether I’m a congresswoman or not, I’m still taking care of my people,” Bush said.

Apparently, “taking care of (her) people” means… “tearing down” AIPAC’s “kingdom.” I guess it makes sense if her considers “her people” to be Hamas.

Cynthia McKinney 2.0

Reminder that she is still facing a DoJ investigation for diverting campaign funds to funnel money to her husband. https://t.co/4yVyBX9riF

— AG (@AGHamilton29) August 7, 2024

Ooooooh, we have Cori Bush UNLEASHED now! Or something. I’m guessing she isn’t going to be as big and fiery and badass when she’s being deposed by the DOJ and the FEC for paying her husband out of her campaign funds.

Is this the end of Cori Bush as a political figure? Probably not, because anyone can get hired at MSNBC these days as a political commentator. But is this the end of Bush as a congresswoman? Thankfully, yes. If we can’t vote The Squad out altogether – too many of them are from “safe” radical districts that would vote for a glass of water with a “D” after its name – then at the very least, their numbers can be limited and their anti-Semitism contained. Even Democrats should be able to admit that their party is better off without anti-Semites like Cori Bush in the House of Representatives.

Featured image: original Victory Girls art by Darleen Click