‘Squad’ Rep. Cori Bush trails Democratic primary challenger in fundraising, poll amid DOJ probe
Far-left Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) is far behind her Democratic primary opponent in both campaign fundraising and in a recent public poll — as she faces a Department of Justice investigation for allegedly making improper payments of federal and campaign funds to hire a personal security detail that included a man she later married.
Bush, 47, ended 2023 with just a little more than $215,000 cash on hand, campaign finance filings show, while Democratic challenger Wesley Bell had nearly $409,000.
The Republican firm Remington Research also conducted a survey in early February that found Bell leading Bush by 22 percentage points ahead of their Aug. 6 primary election.
The clearest contrast between the two candidates has come over their responses to the Israel-Hamas war, with Bell defending the Jewish state after the Oct. 7 terror attack launched from the Gaza Strip and Bush accusing the Israeli military of “war crimes” against Palestinians and repeatedly calling for a “cease-fire.”
Fellow “Squad” Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) have joined Bush in opposing further US military assistance to Israel.
In late January, Bush, a proponent of the “Defund the Police” movement, also confirmed that she was the target of a federal probe into her payments for personal security but claimed she had “used campaign funds as permissible to retain security services.”
“I have not used any federal tax dollars for personal security services. Any reporting that I have used federal funds for personal security is simply false,” she said, adding that she was “fully cooperating” with the investigation.
Reports have noted that Bush spent $1,416 from her Member Representational Allowance, which is provided by US taxpayers, to pay for “security services.”
In 2022, Bush’s campaign paid $60,000 for protection to Cortney Merritts, who did not possess a private security license, according to a complaint later filed with the House Office of Congressional Ethics.
The Missouri congresswoman married Merritts the following year, and he has not received payments for “security services” since April 2023, though he still receives $5,000 per month in wages, according to campaign finance filings.
Under Federal Election Commission rules, political campaigns can only make payments to family members of candidates for “bona fide” services.
A man named Joseph Walter received the same $5,000 in monthly payments for “security services” as of the 2023 fourth quarter filings.
An ex-Black Panther named Nathaniel Davis has also received roughly $137,000 in total from Bush’s campaign since 2020 before being left off the third and fourth quarter reports from last year.
The St. Louis-based firm PEACE Security provided the same services for the far-left representative at a cost of $225,000, other filings show.
During her first two years in office, Bush spent almost $500,000 in all on her personal protection.
“I’m going to make sure I have security because I know I have had attempts on my life and I have too much work to do,” she told CBS News in an August 2021 interview. “So, if I end up spending $200,000, if I spend … 10 more dollars on it, you know what? I get to be here to do the work.”
“So, suck it up, and defunding the police has to happen,” Bush said. “We need to defund the police and put that money into social safety nets because we’re trying to save lives.”
Bush is currently running for a third term representing Missouri’s 1st Congressional District, which includes St. Louis and its northwest suburbs, after coming to prominence for her activism following the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson.
