Cori Bush on losing her US House seat: ‘I’m just getting started’

Cori Bush may be leaving Congress this month, but she is determined to stay in the fight for the future of the Democratic party and the direction of the country.

Bush, a two-term progressive representative from Missouri who lost her primary race in August amid an onslaught of spending by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), looks back on her four years in the House with pride as she prepares to start a new chapter of her political career.

“I’m happy about the work that we’ve done, but also I just feel like there’s just so much more to do, and I just want St Louis to have the best outcome,” Bush said. “I’m keeping the door open to many possibilities, but right now, all I can say is this: I’m not going anywhere. I’m just getting started.”

Bush, a member of the progressive “Squad” in the House, made a splash on Capitol Hill from her very first days there. After first gaining attention as an activist and community leader in the wake of the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown in 2014, Bush won a House race on her second attempt in 2020 and was sworn in just days before the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Less than a week after the attack, Bush introduced a resolution to expel Republican members who had supported efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, accusing them of sedition.

Seven months later, Bush made headlines again by staging a four-day protest on the Capitol steps to extend a pandemic-related moratorium on evictions. One month after that, she testified before the House oversight committee about her decision to have an abortion after she was raped at the age of 17.

“We worked really, really hard,” Bush said. “We’ve done some great things, and historic things, in our office in just a very short time, in four years, and I decided to be who I said I would be on the campaign trail, to be that person in Congress.”

Bush’s outspoken politics ultimately cost her a seat in the House. In the days after the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel, Bush introduced the Ceasefire Now resolution calling for an end to the war in Gaza. After its introduction, Bush became the target of attack ads from Aipac’s Super Pac, the United Democracy Project (UDP).

The Super Pac ran ads criticizing Bush for voting against Biden’s infrastructure bill and accusing her of failing to deliver for her district. The ads further imperiled Bush, who was already viewed as vulnerable after the justice department launched an investigation into her potential misuse of campaign funds for security services.

In total, UDP spent roughly $8.5m boosting Bush’s primary opponent, the St Louis county prosecutor Wesley Bell, who won the race by 5.5 points in August.

With her defeat, Bush became the second Squad member to lose a primary to an Aipac-backed challenger, after Representative Jamaal Bowman of New York lost his race to fellow Democrat George Latimer in June. Bush pointed to the two losses as evidence of the need to get dark money out of US elections, and she specifically excoriated Aipac for unseating Black lawmakers. During Bush’s primary, UDP was accused of distributing campaign mailers that distorted her features to lean into racist tropes about Black people.

“They made sure that they targeted Black legislators. Let’s just be clear: they targeted with the most money Black legislators, and I think that that was on purpose,” Bush said. “I will say to the Democratic party: we have to do a better job.”

Bush (left) with Ayanna Pressley in Washington on 10 December 2024, calling upon Joe Biden to commute the death sentences of the 40 individuals on federal death row. Photograph: Sue Dorfman/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock

UDP did not respond to the Guardian’s request for comment. Bush framed Aipac’s involvement in Democratic primaries as a deliberate attempt to shift the party’s politics rightward. According to a Politico analysis, Aipac served as the largest source of Republican money into competitive Democratic primaries this year.

“I need Democrats to pay attention to the fact that what they’re really doing is they’re trying to move Democrats to the right,” Bush said. “And so they’re not going to stop with us.”

Aipac’s ability to pour millions of dollars into Democratic primaries underscores the threat of dark-money groups, Bush argued. She implored Democrats, specifically progressive lawmakers, to reject donations from corporate special interest groups.

“I don’t take corporate Pac money. We are 100% grassroots funded. So I can’t be bought by anyone,” Bush said. “In this democracy, we should not be able to buy elections. … We do need to get the corporate money completely out of our elections. And it has to start with our leadership.”

The push to get corporate money out of politics could play a role in Bush’s next career move after Congress, but for now, she is making the most of her final days as a House member. She has joined forces with Representative Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, a fellow Squad member, to urge Joe Biden to direct the US archivist to certify and publish the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) as the 28th amendment to the constitution.

“So much is housed under the Equal Rights Amendment. So we’re talking about closing the gender wage gap, actual protections as it relates to violence against women, sexual discrimination and harassment in the workplace,” Bush said. “This is the time.”

The campaign to certify the ERA faces significant legal hurdles. Earlier this month, the US archivist released a statement reiterating that courts had determined the ratification deadline had passed for the ERA, so the office could not legally publish it.

Despite the challenges ahead, Bush sounded energized as she prepared to fight for progressive policies beyond Congress.

“I’ll continue to work to increase the minimum wage, housing justice, economic justice, police accountability, all of the things,” Bush said. “I was on the outside, then went inside, and now I will be going back outside, so I will be able to take that knowledge with me, and those connections.”

She hopes her ongoing efforts may serve as an inspiration for young progressives, many of whom feel dismayed and disillusioned over Donald Trump’s imminent return to the White House.

“Let’s turn that pain into purpose. Let’s turn that discouragement into greater work. Because what we cannot do is shrink,” Bush said. “The fight for the next four years started already. We should already have our eyes on who’s going to be president in four years. And so those talking points, that messaging, that change needs to happen right now.”