One of Israel’s most vociferous critics in Congress faces a tough primary challenge on Tuesday, with polling suggesting that Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) is likely to lose to St. Louis county prosecutor Wesley Bell.
A member of the so-called progressive “Squad” who frequently criticizes the Jewish state, Bush has been one of the most significant targets for pro-Israel groups in this year’s primary cycle alongside Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), who lost his primary in New York’s 16th Congressional District in June.
In an interview with The New York Times published on Monday, Bush conceded that her anti-Israel views are “not a priority for my district” and seemed to doubt whether Hamas is a terrorist organization.
“Would they qualify to me as a terrorist organization? Yes. But do I know that? Absolutely not,” Bush said. “I have no communication with them. All I know is that we were considered terrorists, we were considered black identity extremists, and all we were doing was trying to get peace.”
“I’m not trying to compare us, but that taught me to be careful about labeling if I don’t know,” she said. (The United States designated Hamas as a foreign terrorist organization on Oct. 8, 1997. U.S. President Joe Biden said on Oct. 10 that Hamas’s “stated purpose for being is to kill Jews.”)
Bush rose to prominence as a political activist during the protests and rioting in Ferguson, Mo., after the police shooting of an unarmed black 18-year-old. She was first elected to Congress in 2020 after unseating a 10-term incumbent in the Democratic primary.
In her interview with the Times, she compared criticism of her activism to criticism of Hamas and drew parallels between Israel and Hamas.
“We were called terrorists during Ferguson,” she said. “Have they hurt people? Absolutely. Has the Israeli military hurt people? Absolutely.”
Since taking office, Bush has staked out a position on the anti-Israel fringe of the Democratic Party. In 2021, she was one of just eight Democrats to oppose U.S. funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system, and she called for a unilateral Israeli ceasefire in Gaza nine days after the Oct. 7 attacks.
Those positions prompted AIPAC and other pro-Israel groups to endorse her challenger, Bell. AIPAC’s United Democracy Project super PAC has spent $8.86 million on ads focused on her congressional record of voting against some of the Biden administration’s signature legislative efforts, including a 2021 vote against the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill.
Bush, in turn, has embraced anti-Israel Jewish groups, including End the Occupation PAC’s “Jews for Cori.”
In July she appeared on a Jews for Cori fundraising call co-organized by Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow that featured Linda Sarsour, an anti-Israel activist who has compared Zionism to white supremacy, and Marc Lamont Hill, who was fired by CNN in 2018 after calling for “a free Palestine from the river to the sea.”
Bush has also hit back at AIPAC directly, suggesting her opponent had been “bought and sold” by the nonpartisan Israel advocacy group.
“We know St. Louis is not for sale—but AIPAC is still desperate to buy our seat in Congress,” she wrote on Saturday.
The most recent poll from the Mellman Group on July 29 shows that Bell leads Bush 48% to 42%. Mark Mellman, the CEO of the polling group, also runs a super PAC that has endorsed Bell.
