Multiple Squad members are facing primaries for the 2024 election, including Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO). Late last October we covered how Wesley Bell, a Soros-backed prosecutor, felt so passionately about challenging Bush that he dropped out of the Senate Democratic primary to challenge Josh Hawley and is instead running to challenge Bush to represent Missouri's 1st Congressional District. According to one recent poll, he's far ahead.
The Remington Research poll shows Bell with 50 percent support to Bush's 28 percent. Although The New York Post highlighted how the poll had a small sample size of 401 voters and a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points, the results are still "stark," especially as they are far beyond the margin of error.
Missouri 1st House - Democratic Primary Polling:
— Polling USA (@USA_Polling) February 11, 2024
Wesley Bell: 50%
Cori Bush: 28%
Remington Research / n=401
During a press conference to announce his campaign, Bell drew a stark contrast to Bush in his support for Israel. And, he recently earned an endorsement from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), as Jewish Insider's Matthew Kassel posted about this week. AIPAC has also endorsed George Latimer in his primary bid against another Squad member, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY).
The New York Times, in highlighting AIPAC's support also noted that Bell now has the endorsement from the Laborers’ International Union of North America, after they once endorsed Bush.
That report had plenty to say about the role the Israel-Hamas conflict will play in the primary:
Pro-Israel groups have yet to formally intervene in the primary race, but an AIPAC official said Monday that the group has endorsed Mr. Bell. Other organizations are expected to endorse Mr. Bell soon. At the same time, the fund-raising of those groups since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the resulting war in Gaza has been staggering.
The United Democracy Project announced receipts of more than $44 million by the end of 2023, with almost $41 million still in its war chest. Among its contributors were well-known pro-Trump Republicans, such as Bernard Marcus, the co-founder of Home Depot, who gave the political action committee $1 million.
The Democratic Majority for Israel has $1.7 million more to spend at year’s end.
Those groups are targeting a number of incumbent Democrats this cycle, including Representatives Summer Lee in Pittsburgh, Ilhan Omar in Minneapolis, Jamaal Bowman in New York and Ms. Tlaib in Detroit.
“Beating an incumbent member of Congress is the hardest thing in politics; that’s just a statistical fact, and she is not an unpopular politician,” said Mark Mellman, a veteran Democratic operative and the founder of the Democratic Majority for Israel PAC.
But, he added, “She can be beaten.”
Marcy and Richard Cornfeld, the co-chairmen of the St. Louis AIPAC Council, have already given Mr. Bell the maximum, as has the financier Tony Davis. Timothy Drury, a scion of a Republican hotelier family, has maxed out his contributions to Mr. Bell. So has Reid Hoffman, the LinkedIn founder and Democratic megadonor.
The congresswoman had quite the unhinged response over AIPAC, which was also included in the report.
"I’m being targeted by AIPAC because not only do I believe Palestinians deserve to live freely and peacefully just like Israelis, but because I want to protect our democracy from Republican extremism," Bush claimed on Monday. "I want to codify abortion rights, I want to pass meaningful gun violence prevention legislation, and I want to raise taxes on billionaires--all things AIPAC, their G.O.P. donors, and the insurrectionists they endorse, oppose."
Bush, along with other members of the Squad, has demanded a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict, despite how such a narrative helps the terrorists. She's even gone on to play the victim when faced with criticism for her positions.
The congresswoman certainly has had a rough few weeks. In addition to these poll results and endorsements for her opponent, Stop Antisemitism also announced on Sunday that she was their "Antisemite of the Week," as they all too happily mentioned the poll results while also highlighting her "deeply troubling" association with other antisemites.
The company Congresswoman Cori Bush keeps is also deeply troubling:
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) February 11, 2024
- Nathaniel Davis III (pic #1), also known as Aha Sen Piankhy, serves as Bush's bodyguard. Piankhy, a self-proclaimed spiritual guru and Jewish High Priest claims Jews were behind the creation of COVID-19 and… pic.twitter.com/lxY9i0jB1H
Just a few weeks ago, Bush's antisemitic and anti-Israel voting record was on full display when she and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) were the only two members to vote against a bill that would ban Hamas terrorists from the United States. Not long before that, Bush also acknowledged that she is under investigation for her misuse of funds to pay for private security.
The Democratic primary in Missouri is set to take place on August 6. Bush first won her seat when she herself defeated Democratic incumbent William Lacy Clay in the 2020 August primary.
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