ST. LOUIS – Wesley Bell defeats incumbent Cori Bush in the Democratic primary for Missouri Congressional District 1, a U.S. Congress seat representing the St. Louis area, the Associated Press projects.
Bell, after six years as St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney, wins nomination to run as the Democratic candidate in the November 2024 general election.
Bush was first elected to her District 1 seat in 2020. She is the first African-American woman to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives from Missouri. Bush had won reelection in 2022 prior to the August 2024 primary election. Her current term is scheduled to end in January 2025.
It’s not often that a challenger like Bell ends up defeating an incumbent like Bush for a U.S. Congress seat in a primary election. According to political consulting firm CN4 Partners, historically, only around 6% of Congressional incumbents have lost reelection bids in the U.S. primaries.
According to software company AdImpact, which tracks campaign spending, the primary race involving Bell and Bush was the second-most expensive in U.S. history, with more than $18 million in fundraising.
Justice Democrats, a progressive PAC supporting bush, reports more than $15 million in outside campaign spending in this race. More than two-thirds of it was spent against Bush.
Some of Bell’s campaign goals, according to his website, are strengthening local economies, focusing on workers and job and skills training, lowering health insurance and prescription drug costs, supporting seniors, and fighting climate change.
Bush, according to her website, says she has used her position to navigate St. Louis through the COVID-19 pandemic, while also advocating for police reform, protestor rights, EPA cleanup at Coldwater Creek and stricter oversight of oil and gas companies. She has also been very critical of Israel’s military response in Gaza to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack against Israel, repeatedly accusing Israel of conducting genocide in Gaza.
Bell and Bush became active in leadership roles after unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, but in different ways, after the death of Michael Brown at the hands of a police officer nearly 10 years to date.
Bush, 48, was a protest leader. She was outspoken and critical of how police and the courts treated Black people. Her activism prompted an unsuccessful run against longtime incumbent 1st District Democrat William Lacy Clay in 2018, before she defeated him in 2020. She easily won reelection in 2022.
Bell, 49, began hosting conversations about community policing after Brown’s death. The lawyer, who previously served as a municipal prosecutor and judge, ran successfully for a seat on the Ferguson City Council before defeating seven-term incumbent St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch in the August 2018 Democratic primary.
Andrew Jones and Stan Hall are leading the Republican nomination for Missouri U.S. District 1, though AP has not yet called that ticket. The winner would advance for an election versus Bell as the Democratic candidate this fall. Bell is considered a heavy favorite for a seat that was last occupied by a Republican in 1949.
District 1 covers all of St. Louis City and several cities in north and central St. Louis County.
