ST. LOUIS – As the Missouri primary election is less than 24 hours away, one race in St. Louis is making national history: the Democratic contest for the U.S. House of Representatives.
FOX 2 caught up with incumbent Congresswoman Cori Bush and challenger St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell Monday. In a race where tens of millions of dollars in outside spending on political ads have dominated, both are making their final appeals to voters.
“I’m speaking loud. I’m standing up for those who are often times overlooked and most marginalized in our communities,” Bush told FOX 2. “I’m being vulnerable about it, but I’m also delivering back on the promise of trying to help us to thrive.”
“One campaign has been focused on division. One campaign, our campaign, has been focused on a vision,” Bell said, campaigning with a Pasta House lunch crowd. “This region’s been dying a slow death, losing population. Our educational systems have been struggling; we’ve been losing jobs; those are the things we’ve been focusing on.”
The company AdImpact, which tracks campaign spending, now lists the Bush and Bell, Missouri’s 1st District, campaign as the second most expensive House primary race in history, at $18.2 million and counting. It trails only the New York 16th District race, in which Bush’s ally and fellow progressive member Jamaal Bowman lost in June amid heavy spending against him from pro-Israeli political action committees (PACs).
Like Bowman, Bush has been very critical of Israel’s military response in Gaza to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack against Israel. Bush has repeatedly accused Israel of conducting genocide in Gaza.
Justice Democrats, a progressive PAC supporting Bush, reports more than $15 million in outside spending in this race. More than two-thirds of it has been spent against Bush, or for Bell.
FOX 2’s Hancock and Kelley political team sees the same factors that worked against Bowman now working against Bush.
“What money does is it creates attention, activity, and it inflates turnout. The louder this race has become, the more and more likely it is that Bell is going to win. Why? Because the turnout’s going to be higher,” Republican consultant John Hancock said.
He predicted Bell could win by 10% or more.
Democrat consultant Michael Kelley agrees Bell will win, but he sees a much tighter race.
“This is going to be a close race but Wesley Bell’s going to win it and it’s going to wind up the most expensive congressional race in the country. Think about that, here in St. Louis!” Kelley said.
The winner is seen as a shoe-in to beat the Republican nominee in November in a heavily Democratic St. Louis.
