The infamous “Squad” is down another member Wednesday morning after Congresswoman Cori Bush (D-MN) lost her Democratic primary. In a concession speech free of contrition or self-reflection, the far-left progressive instead appeared to issue a veiled threat against voters who gave her the boot and fair-weather friends who she thinks didn’t do enough in her hour of need.

Microphone in hand, Bush stormed back and forth across a stage at an Election night rally with supporters late Tuesday night. There, she promised her critics would finally see “the other Cori,” claiming her loss has only “radicalized” her. “Let’s be clear! Let’s be clear!” the St. Louis Democrat shouted as she grabbed the hands of fans. “Let’s talk about what it really is. Because see, now I don’t have to worry about some strings that I have attached, that as much as I love my job, but all they did was radicalize me, so now they gonna be afraid!” The audience of left-wing activists erupted in cheers. “They’re going to see this other Cori, this other side,” she continued.

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Bush’s rejection by voters in her deep-blue district was a circular end to her career in elected office. She rose to prominence locally following some of the early Black Lives Matter protests in 2014, leveraging her newfound street cred into a successful run for Congress predicated on the 2020 death of George Floyd. Bush was defeated by Wesley Bell, a pragmatic progressive and former prosecutor who promised a fresh approach to lawmaking without the self-aggrandizing stances of the “Squad.” His campaign was buttressed by over $15 million in spending by AIPAC and pro-Israel forces determined to unseat a lawmaker who has been equivocal about her opposition to Hamas. At one point, she feigned knowledge about whether Hamas qualified as a terrorist organization, forcing a spokesperson to later walk back her remarks.

A number of other self-inflicted wounds exacerbated her political exposure. In January, news surfaced of a Justice Department criminal investigation into Bush’s six-figure expenditures to a security officer with no credentials or formal job description and who had a history of making severely antisemitic statements. She later married another bodyguard at a private ceremony. She became known for drawing headlines more than support for bills, struggling to explain her plans for leveling the federal tax code and conflating Memorial Day with Veterans Day in a social media post that was later deleted.

Other Squad members, including Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY) do not face competitive elections this cycle. However, the loss of two key allies may force the progressive caucus to retreat and regroup around a new strategy that may focus more on results and less on rhetoric.

Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL), a conservative Republican who frequently pilloried Bush, wished her a backhanded goodbye after Tuesday night’s result. “I will miss Cori Bush missing every committee meeting,” he wrote on X.

I will miss Cori Bush missing every committee meeting.

— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) August 7, 2024

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With just over 24 hours to go before the polls close, another “Squad” member is badly underwater in the latest polling and sits in serious jeopardy of losing her Democratic primary.

The 2024 election cycle has been unkind to members of the informal far-left group of Democratic lawmakers who prioritize showmanship and rhetoric over service and results. In June, New York Congressman Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) lost his primary to a pro-Israel Westchester native after voters grew tired of his pro-Palestinian grandstanding and photo ops with progressive Jewish leaders who, it turns out, never liked him very much. The story may repeat itself this week in Missouri’s 1st District this week where Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) is badly trailing progressive prosecutor Wesley Bell.

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The Jewish Insider, which has closely chronicled the rise and fall of anti-Israel Squad members in Congress, reported on a poll by the political arm of the Democratic Majority for Israel, DMFI PAC, showing Bell leading Bush 48%-42%, well outside the margin of error and putting Bush on track to lose her reelection on Tuesday. If the result holds, she would not fare as poorly as Bowman who lost by a wide margin of 58.4% to 41.6%. The Bell campaign is taking the results in stride while taking nothing for granted.

“Wesley is finishing the last few days of this primary campaign the way he’s been running the whole time: talking with people, hearing their concerns and sharing his vision for better representation for this district,” Anjan Mukherjee, a spokesperson for the Bell campaign, said in a statement to Jewish Insider on Thursday. “That’s how he was elected as a city councilman and county prosecutor, and it’s why he will be the next member of Congress from MO-01.”

A large coalition of progressive activists, from labor unions to Black Lives Matter chapters, have endorsed Bell over Bush, who has been one of the least productive lawmakers in the 118th Congress. She may have escaped criticism of that, however, were it not for a series of politically sensitive scandals that tainted her image as an outsider. She struggled to describe the tax code after announcing her reelection campaign, and in January the Justice Department quietly launched an investigation into her hiring of a bodyguard with no credentials who was paid more than $100,000 over two years. The guard, Nathaniel Davis, has a history of making virulent antisemitic statements. Bush and Cortney Merritts, another bodyguard, tied the knot in a private ceremony in February 2023. Earlier this month the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, her hometown paper, endorsed Bell.

Some of the House Democratic leadership has not yet turned their back on Bush. On Friday House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA) campaigned with the Missouri Democrat on Friday, though Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) has kept his powder dry in the feud.

Jewish advocates in the district are hopeful they can repeat the success felt by Rep. Bowman’s defeat earlier this summer. Benjamin Singer, CEO of the Jewish community organization St. Louis Votes, said he has anticipated “record turnout among Jewish St. Louisans, in part due to our grassroots organizing, door-knocking, phone banking and work with synagogues and other community institutions.”

“People are incredibly worried and upset by the skyrocketing antisemitism across our country,” he said, noting that his group is not telling voters who to support. “The Jewish people are simply fighting for our right to survive.” State Rep. Stacey Newman, who is leading outreach efforts for the Bell campaign, said antisemitic protests have broken out sporadically in front of the campaign’s headquarters, further emboldening his supporters to feel good about Election Day and work into the evening. “I’ve never worked on a race where I had to think about mine and my staff’s safety every day or had to check in with a security advisor frequently,” Newman said. But, she added, “it only seems to motivate volunteers to keep showing up.”

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Exactly one month after “Squad” Congressman Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) lost his primary to a progressive, pro-Israel challenger, another lawmaker in the far-left network is on track for her own landslide loss — and the hometown paper is telling her to throw in the towel.

A poll released on July 14th showed Congresswoman Cori Bush (D-MO) down a stunning 23 points against her progressive challenger Wesley Bell. Now, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has released an editorial calling for her time in office to come to an end and backing Bell, citing his promises to focus on block-and-tackle matters like effective constituent services and passing laws. Previous analyses show Rep. Bush to be among the least productive lawmakers in Congress. The editorial cited the Squad’s intense focus on winning headlines instead of passing bills, according to The Hill.

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“Missouri’s First Congressional District, encompassing St. Louis city and northern St. Louis County, is our region’s most direct connection to the federal government’s seat of power,” the editorial board said in a piece published Thursday. “For the past four years, the district has been in the hands of U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, a Democrat who has generally appeared less interested in working that system for the good of her constituents than attacking it on behalf of a small, hard-left klatch of lawmakers — ‘the Squad’ — who are good at getting headlines but bad at actually accomplishing anything,” the board continued.

Rep. Bush’s decline in the polls is even more remarkable considering the last survey, released in June, showed her down just 1% against the former prosecutor. Bell hasn’t separated himself from Bush on the Israel-Hamas war and remains a vocal opponent of atrocities committed during the conflict, but the Post-Dispatch concludes he is the best “viable alternative” to a congresswoman who doesn’t have much to show after two years in office.

“Democratic primary voters in the overwhelmingly Democratic district weren’t offered a viable alternative to Bush two years ago,” the Post-Dispatch editorial board said in their Thursday piece. “This year, they have a terrific one. We enthusiastically endorse Wesley Bell for the Democratic nomination to this seat in the Aug. 6 primaries.”

The Post-Dispatch’s editorial board said “Bush’s almost immediate induction into the small clique of progressive House rabble-rousers positioned her as a darling of fringe-left activists — and thus irrelevant to what actually happens in Washington. Bush voted against the Biden administration’s landmark infrastructure package — one of only six House Democrats to do so — to protest the fact that a separate social-spending package was stalled,” the board continued. “That myopic stance helps explain why labor interests that previously backed Bush have moved to Bell.”

In addition to her outspokenness, Rep. Bush has also made it easy for critics to single her out for uninformed statements and alleged lawbreaking. She struggled to describe the tax code after announcing her reelection campaign, and in January the Justice Department quietly launched an investigation into her hiring of a bodyguard with no credentials who was paid more than $100,000 over two years. The guard, Nathaniel Davis, has a history of making virulent antisemitic statements. Bush and Cortney Merritts, another bodyguard, tied the knot in a private ceremony in February 2023.

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