By admin 
Few Democratic primaries featuring a liberal incumbent fighting off a progressive populist in 2026 have become as personal as Rep. Wesley Bell and former Rep. Cori Bush’s rematch in Missouri.
Read more Lassen-Eastern Plumas-Eastern Sierra counties placed under an extreme heat watch
Both came to prominence during the Black Lives Matter movement in Ferguson after Michael Brown’s fatal shooting by police in 2014.
Each toppled an incumbent: Bell defeated St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch in 2018 and Bush upset Rep. Lacy Clay in 2020.
Now the two are locking horns in the Aug. 4 primary for a deep blue seat covering St. Louis and its northern suburbs that has touched several raw nerves in the party, from anger at the establishment to who is the blame for President Donald Trump’s return to power.
But in a race filled with bitter character attacks and accusations of misconduct, the evolving U.S. relationship with Israel might be the deciding factor in whether Bush, 50, can wage a successful comeback.
“We’ve never been friends,” Bell, 51, said in a one-on-one interview with USA TODAY.
The limited polling in the race shows it is a statistical tie.
Steven Rodgers, a political science professor at Saint Louis University, said local dynamics will influence the race as much as national trends, noting that a lot of the issues framing the election are largely the same as during their previous bout.
“We don’t often see rematches, and we don’t often see rematches where they basically have the same term of Congress experience,” he said. “If it is a matter of resources and boots on the ground, Bell’s establishment endorsements are going to really help him, but Bush has a loyal following.”
Rivalry began with Democratic divide over Israel, AIPAC
The origin of this rivalry started when Bell abruptly dropped his Senate bid two years ago to challenge Bush shortly after she sharply criticized Israel’s military response to the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks by Hamas.
Israel, she said, was engaging in an “ethnic cleansing campaign,” a statement which was widely condemned by Democrats and pro-Israel groups at the time.
The backlash boosted Bell, with the help of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, which heavily targeted Bush. He prevailed by roughly six percentage points.
In the immediate aftermath, Bush warned the powerful lobbying group that she would return to “tear your kingdom down,” and that is a motivation for many of her supporters.
“The Israel-Gaza issue is one that has characterized this race, and that has become a more important foreign policy priority within the progressive movement,” said Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of Our Revolution, a progressive PAC that has endorsed Bush.
“AIPAC is an albatross around the neck of candidates, from a progressive point of view,” he added. “It is a marker that this person is not aligned with our values.”
At least three House Democratic incumbents with AIPAC support have lost their primaries this year in New York and Colorado.
That is largely due to how views about Israel have shifted dramatically since the war in Gaza was launched. About 58% of Democrats say they believe the U.S. is “too supportive” of Israel, vs. 45% who said the same two years ago, according to an Associated Press-NORC poll released this month.
The group has spent roughly $1.2 million against her through United Democracy Project, its political action committee, joining other centrist-aligned groups, such as New Democrat Majority, that doled out an additional $1 million to influence the race.
Bush has criticized that outside spending in ads, saying it demonstrates groups “buying a congressman.” She has said she would vote to cut military aid to Israel if sent back to Washington.
“Trump’s donors didn’t send me to Congress – you did,” she said in a 30-second campaign spot released July 16.
Asked whether AIPAC’s involvement could hurt his standing among rank-and-file Democrats, as it has other House incumbents, Bell emphasized that there’s too much money in politics. But he defended the group’s role, saying that he doesn’t believe any organization should be singled out with suggestions that they cannot participate in the electoral process.
Bell has remained steadfast that while he isn’t a fan of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the U.S. should stick by its ally in much the same way it has with Ukraine, Taiwan and Western Europe. He also called it “absurd” when Bush and others describe Israel’s actions in Gaza as a genocide.
“Israel is a nuclear power,” Bell said. “If they wanted to destroy Gaza, they would do it. If they wanted to destroy Gaza they wouldn’t allow and facilitate hundreds of humanitarian aid trucks into Gaza every single day.”
Read more Heat advisory issued for Lassen-Eastern Plumas-Eastern Sierra counties for Wednesday and Thursday
Since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that killed 1,200 Israelis and took 250 hostages, Israel’s military operation has killed more 73,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. It has been described as a genocide by UN commissions and global organizations such as Amnesty International.
The AP-NORC survey found roughly half of Democrats believe that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians, despite vehement denials by the Israeli and U.S. governments.
Personal attacks and criticizing Kamala Harris
Bell and Bush share many positions, including opposing the war with Iran, abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and supporting “Medicare for All,” which would establish a universal health insurance program.
Whatever consensus the pair share, however, is split by the different factions supporting them.
Bush is being endorsed by a constellation of more left-leaning groups, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, and the Democratic Socialists of America, who credit her initial opposition to the war in Gaza. Bell, meanwhile, is backed by major Democratic figures, such as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Congressional Black Caucus.
The Bell campaign is raising questions about Bush’s political judgement, including her votes against the Biden administration’s $1.2 trillion federal infrastructure package in 2021. She joined five other House Democrats, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who voted against the measure as a way to gain leverage to promote a separate proposal aimed at expanding social safety net programs and climate change initiatives.
Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, which has endorsed Bell, said that is just one example of why Bush lost in 2024. She said voters are looking for candidates who do more than see the country solely through a partisan lens, and want lawmakers who speak and act on the issues with results in mind.
“She really positioned herself as an extreme voice on the far left of the party, whereas Bell is somewhere in the center, and that is honestly where the majority of American voters lie,” Soifer, who advised Harris as a senator on national security issues, told USA TODAY.
During a joint July 24 appearance on St. Louis public radio, Bell reminded listeners that Bush criticized former Vice President Kamala Harris, who won the district by about 57 percentage points in 2024. He reiterated that in the interview with USA TODAY, saying Democrats worked “our tails off” to defeat Trump.
“This is a key distinction between us – we all knew before that election the best way to fight Donald Trump was to keep him out of office,” Bell said.
“Just a little over two weeks prior to the election, Cori Bush was, pardon my language, s— talking Kamala, calling her a fascist and saying that she couldn’t vote for her. And in an election that came down to a few thousand votes in about five states, that lack of judgment matters.”
Bush endorsed Harris in July 2024, saying voters should “trust Black women” who have been the “backbone” of the Democratic Party for decades. In the final weeks of that campaign, however, she admitted being “conflicted” about voting for Harris in good conscience due to the former vice president’s position on Israel.
“I definitely don’t want a Donald Trump presidency again,” Bush said in an interview October 2024 with Al-Jazeera. “… What I’m hearing is people say, ‘Well, we’re talking about fighting fascism, we don’t need the fascism that comes along with a Donald Trump presidency, but I feel like I’m seeing fascism right now, you know, with a Joe Biden presidency and a Vice President Harris presidency.’ It’s a struggle.”
Both campaigns have also thrown barbs by spotlighting lawsuits and scandals involving the other.
Bush’s team points out the former St. Louis prosecutor is under fire after pro-Palestinian protesters alleged the congressman’s security team assaulted them at a 2025 town hall. She has also attacked Bell for a $500,000 settlement over alleged gender discrimination by a former assistant prosecutor who worked in Bell’s office.The Bell campaign returns fire by regularly hammering Bush about a series of scandals, such as a 2024 Justice Department investigation for using campaign funds to pay her husband for security work after receiving death threats.
Bell has also called her out for raising funds around the deadly tornado that struck St. Louis last year that were transferred to a political action committee, and her husband facing federal charges for allegedly defrauding a pandemic-era small business relief program (the case ended in a mistrial earlier this year after the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict).
“Listen, I’m a former prosecutor, and I know a scam when I see one,” Bell told USA TODAY when asked if he believed Bush was a scammer. “When you don’t show up for the job and you don’t do the work, and then you are taking money at every opportunity – whether it be PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) loans, tornado relief – taking money, and then paying herself, again, I know a scam when I see one.”
The Bush campaign did not respond to an interview request for this story, but her allies dismiss the negative attacks and lean heavily on her background as a pastor and activist.
“The people need to know that you’re going to fight for them and Cori has shown herself to be a fighter,” Rep. Jamaal Bowman, who like Bush lost his 2024 reelection to a more moderate challenger, said in an interview. “(Bell) is more of an establishment person, and I want to say this part very clearly: Establishment politics has gotten us two Donald Trump presidencies.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: ‘Never been friends’: Missouri primary rematch features Democratic rifts
Read more Heat advisory issued for Surprise Valley California for Wednesday and Thursday
Reporting by Phillip M. Bailey, USA TODAY / USA TODAY
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect
This story was originally published August 3, 2026 at 12:01 AM.