Rep. Wesley Bell Beats Former Rep. Cori Bush by Wider Margin in Missouri Rematch

Bell took nearly 60 percent of the Democratic primary vote in the St. Louis district, a far bigger total than his 2024 win over the former congresswoman.

(Left) Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) speaks at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on June 22, 2023. (Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Just Majority); (Right) St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell speaks during an interview in Clayton, Miss., on July 29, 2019. Jeff Roberson/AP Photo

Rep. Wesley Bell (D-Mo.) defeated former Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) in the Democratic primary for Missouri’s 1st Congressional District on Aug. 4, holding the St. Louis-based seat he took from her two years ago and winning by a margin more than four times as large.

Bell received 83,663 votes, or 59.2 percent, to Bush’s 52,083 votes, or 36.9 percent, with all 639 precincts reporting, according to Missouri Secretary of State unofficial results. Three other Democrats split the remaining 5,539 votes. Turnout in the Democratic primary was 141,285, compared with 13,162 in the Republican primary.

Bell beat Bush by roughly 5 percentage points in the 2024 primary. His margin this time was about 22 points.

The rematch had been billed as a test of whether progressive candidates could sustain the primary wins they have posted this year from New York to Colorado, with the two Democrats also divided over U.S. support for Israel. In another key matchup on the same night, progressive Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed defeated U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, an Israel supporter viewed as more moderate.

Bell told supporters on Tuesday night that he had kept the campaign local.

“You know what, there is a lot of noise that you hear during campaigns,” he said. “There’s a lot of chatter, there’s national headlines, and everybody has an opinion. But we approach this from a very simple, in a very simple way. We are going to work for the people right here in St. Louis.”

He returned to that point later in the speech, saying that when “the biggest killer of our young people is gun violence, don’t tell me what’s happening on the other side of the country.” He described the St. Louis region as “a sleeping giant” and said improving it “is going to require us coming together, working together.”

Bush, in remarks to her own supporters, said the contest had not been about Bell.

“This really isn’t even about him, you all,” she said. “Billionaires want to control this district. Republican billionaires to be exact.”

Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) questions former special counsel Robert Hur during a House Judiciary Committee hearing in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill, on March 12, 2024. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

She also said pro-Israel lobby American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) was not her primary target, although she focused comments on them.

“And I’m not just coming for AIPAC. This ain’t even about AIPAC. The billionaires, the corporations that think they’re people, that’s who I’m coming for,” she said.

AIPAC spent millions to help oust Bush in 2024 after she criticized Israel’s response in Gaza to the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, and Bell was again supported by AIPAC in this year’s primary, according to Open Secrets financial data.

Bush told the room she believed the district itself was at risk in a future redraw, saying that “there is a redistricting possibly going to take place here soon” and that she had heard Republicans “would like to make this district a Republican district and chop it up the way that they did in Kansas City.”

Missouri Republicans enacted a new congressional map earlier this year that broke up the Kansas City-area district held by Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.).

Bush did not say whether she would seek office again, telling supporters, “I’m not worn out, I’m not tired out, I’m not beat up, I’m not sat down, I’m not silenced,” and adding, “I don’t have to have a title to fight for my people, St. Louis.”

Bush served two terms beginning in 2021 as a member of the far-left House Democratic group known as “The Squad” before losing to Bell in 2024.

She announced her comeback bid on Oct. 3, 2025, saying in a video that she was running “because St. Louis deserves leadership that doesn’t wait for permission, doesn’t answer to wealthy donors, and doesn’t hide when things get tough.”

Bell responded at the time in a thread on X, writing, “When it came time to deliver, Cori Bush’s focus wasn’t on our community, but on her own national agenda. That’s why our district was left behind.”

His posts also referenced a Justice Department inquiry, opened in January 2024, into whether Bush misused campaign funds for personal security. Bush denied wrongdoing and said she was cooperating. No charges have been filed against her.

Bell will face Paul Berry III, who won the Republican primary with 53.5 percent of the vote over Andrew Jones, the party’s 2024 nominee, and Libertarian Tom Schmitz in November. The Cook Political Report rates the district solidly Democratic.

Savannah Hulsey Pointer contributed to this report.