Cori Bush vows to tear down AIPAC after primary loss: ‘All they did was radicalize me’

Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) vowed retribution on the pro-Israel group that helped block her from a third term in the House over her pro-Palestinian views.

In a fiery concession speech Tuesday night, Bush said her loss to St. Louis District Attorney Wesley Bell had only taken “some of the strings off” and that she would spend her time outside of office campaigning against the interests that had opposed her.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, through its affiliated super PAC, spent almost $9 million in the Democratic primary supporting Bell.

“All they did was radicalize me, so now they need to be afraid,” she told a crowd of supporters. “They about to see this other Cori, this other side.”

“AIPAC, I’m coming to tear your kingdom down,” she added.

Bush, who voted against a resolution condemning Hamas following its Oct. 7 attack and accuses Israel of genocide for its war in Gaza, is one of several lawmakers AIPAC has targeted this cycle.

Its political arm, the United Democracy Project, opted not to challenge Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) despite spending heavily in her race last cycle, but it has found success elsewhere.

Beyond Bush, it helped defeat Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) in a Jewish enclave of New York. Bowman, Bush, and Lee are members of the progressive “Squad” in the House, creating uncomfortable optics for AIPAC. The group supports politicians on both sides of the aisle but is attempting to counter the uptick in anti-Israel sentiment on the Left.

In a statement, AIPAC emphasized that a progressive challenger had defeated Bush while noting the role it played in unseating Rep. Bob Good (R-VA), the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus.

Good had opposed a foreign aid package that included $26 billion for Israel.

“Voters across America are rejecting anti-Israel voices in favor of candidates who understand the vital importance of the U.S.-Israel relationship,” said Marshall Wittmann, a spokesman for AIPAC. “Including Republican Rep. Bob Good’s loss, Rep. Bush’s defeat represents the third incumbent to have lost over their lack of an ironclad commitment to standing with America’s ally Israel.”

Despite the war in Gaza becoming a flashpoint, it was not UDP’s focus in Bush’s Missouri House primary. Instead, the group highlighted her vote against the bipartisan infrastructure law that almost all Democrats supported in 2021.

Bush alluded to the “deceit and distortions” in her primary. She has previously defended her vote as meant to maintain leverage with the fate of President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda uncertain.

“It costs a lot of money to lie,” Bush said on Tuesday.

Ultimately, the $2.2 million in support her campaign received from Justice Democrats, a progressive outside group, was not enough to stave off defeat. She lost to Bell 51% to 46%.

But she promised to mobilize grassroots activists from the outside once her term expires in January.

“There is nothing that happens in my life that happens in vain,” she said. “So, this happened because it was meant to happen. And let me say, it’s because of the work that I need to do.”

Samantha-Jo Roth contributed to this story.