After devastatingly shedding her congressional seat in Missouri, former U.S. Rep. Cori Bush mentioned on Friday that she is aiming for a comeback within the 2026 midterm election.
“I ran for Congress to alter issues for normal individuals. I’m operating once more, as a result of St. Louis deserves management that doesn’t look ahead to permission, doesn’t reply to rich donors, and doesn’t disguise when issues get powerful,” Bush says in a video saying her re-election marketing campaign for Missouri’s 1st Congressional District, which is at the moment held by Congressman Wesley Bell.
Bush misplaced to Bell, a former St. Louis County prosecutor, within the 2024 Democratic main election, largely as a result of the pro-Israel group AIPAC spent a statewide document $8.5 million to again Bell. Bush was focused for her criticisms of Israel and its lethal struggle in Gaza, which has, so far, killed greater than 66,000 Palestinians, in keeping with the Gaza Well being Ministry.
“However as a result of I spoke reality, they pushed again. Attacked my title, my motives unfold lies and hate,” Bush mentioned in her marketing campaign video.
St. Louis deserves a frontrunner who’s constructed totally different. That’s why I’m operating to symbolize Missouri’s 1st District in Congress.
We’d like a fighter who will decrease prices, shield our communities, and make life fairer. I’ll be that fighter.
Be part of us: https://t.co/9T0EkpWvIL pic.twitter.com/TzONoSX5FC
— Cori Bush (@CoriBush) October 3, 2025
Taking goal on the Trump administration, Bush mentioned, “All throughout America, we see our rights rolled again, our historical past being rewritten, our lives on the road.” She added, “The stakes for our group right here have by no means been greater. I’m operating as a result of our district deserves somebody 10 toes down for our households, for our wallets, for our security, for our democracy, and for our shiny future.”
As a member of Congress, Bush, an ordained minister and Black Lives Matter activist who endured homelessness, was a strong progressive voice within the Democratic Get together. Throughout her two phrases in workplace, she launched racial justice laws just like the Reparations Now Act, Unhoused Invoice of Rights, Drug Coverage Reform Act, and Folks’s Response Act.
Bush notably slept on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in protest, urging Congress to increase a moratorium on evictions throughout the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bush was one among two progressive members of the so-called “Squad,” a coalition comprised of members like Reps. Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, to lose their seats in main contests attributable to their criticisms of Israel. The opposite was former Congressman Jamaal Bowman of New York.
After her loss to Bell in August of 2024, Bush aimed toward AIPAC throughout a speech at her marketing campaign headquarters.
“Pulling me away from my place as congresswoman, all you probably did was take among the strings off…all they did was radicalize me,” mentioned Bush. “AIPAC, I’m coming to tear your kingdom down!”
