After a fiercely competitive and historically expensive primary race, the Associated Press believes that District Attorney Wesley Bell of St. Louis County has won the Democratic primary in Missouri’s first congressional district, defeating the incumbent. progressive reps. Corey Bushwho becomes the second member of the House “Squad” to be defeated during this primary cycle.
With 94% percent of the estimated vote in (by Associated Press estimate) around 11:00 PM ET, Bell leads with 51% of the vote, followed by Bush with 45.8% of the vote.
Bush is the third incumbent House member to lose a primary to a non-incumbent challenger.
A swell of outside spending took Bush’s race into very expensive territory, closely mirroring the tough primaries of other ‘Squad’ members Rep. Jamaal Bowman in its New York run earlier this summer.
Almost all of the outside money in both races came from the United Democracy Project PAC, the fundraising arm affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, motivated in part by Bush’s vocal criticism of Israel in the way it has conducted its war with Hamas in Gaza.
In this case, the United Democracy Project spent more than $7 million to challenge Bush and boost Bell.