Former congresswoman Cori Bush decided to run the sequel nobody asked for, and just like most sequels, it was somehow worse than the original. Her attempt to reclaim Missouri's 1st Congressional District seat ended in a spectacular defeat Tuesday night, as Trending Politics reported, with incumbent Rep. Wesley Bell cruising to victory so fast that forecasters called the race within 20 minutes of polls closing. Twenty minutes! Some people spend longer deciding what to order at Chipotle.
Early numbers showed Bell absolutely steamrolling with roughly 70.7 percent of the vote compared to Bush's 25.8 percent, with about 31 percent of ballots tallied. Initial counts from St. Louis County suggested the gap was even more brutal. Other candidates on the ballot, including Alissa Murphy, Carl Harris Sr., and Carl Henderson, picked up tiny slivers of support. Bell's winning margin was tracking to be significantly larger than when he first beat Bush back in 2024.
And here's the thing. This wasn't even the first time Bell sent Bush packing. In the 2024 primary, he knocked her off with 51.12 percent to her 45.65 percent. So Bush looked at a five point loss and thought, "You know what? Let me go back and lose by 45 points instead." Bold strategy.
Bush originally won the seat in 2020 by unseating longtime incumbent William Lacy Clay. She served from January 2021 to January 2025 and became a proud member of "the Squad," that group of far left House Democrats who generate approximately 97 percent of all cable news chyrons. During her time in Congress, she sat on the Judiciary Committee and the Committee on Oversight and Reform.
She launched her comeback bid in October 2025, snagging endorsements from Senator Bernie Sanders and running hard on causes like abolishing ICE and slashing Pentagon budgets. Meanwhile, Bell locked down support from House Democratic leadership, including Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and the Congressional Black Caucus, while touting his congressional work on disaster recovery after a tornado hit the St. Louis area in 2025.
Both matchups between these two were defined by enormous outside spending. The United Democracy Project, a super PAC connected to AIPAC, dropped somewhere between $8.5 million and $9.3 million supporting Bell or opposing Bush across the two races, making this one of the priciest House primaries ever recorded. Pro-Israel groups backed Bell again this cycle, though apparently they spent less money this time around, probably because they realized the universe was handling this one on its own.
Since Missouri's 1st District leans so heavily Democratic that it might as well have a donkey tattooed on it, Tuesday's outcome essentially guarantees Bell will waltz into another term come November. As for Bush, she might want to consider a career where losing by historic margins is actually the goal. Competitive eating, perhaps.
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