AIPAC-Backed Primary Challenger Leads Cori Bush by 22 Points: Poll

Squad member and Democratic Missouri Rep. Cori Bush is 22 points behind her challenger Wesley Bell, a St. Louis County prosecutor endorsed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a poll published on Monday reveals.

Fifty percent of likely primary voters surveyed said they would back Bell, while 28% support Bush, The Hill reported. A further 4% said they would vote for state Sen. Maria Chapelle-Nadal, while 18% remain undecided. The news comes amid increased coverage of AIPAC's plan to oust members of the Squad through its United Democracy Project (UDP) super PAC, whose top 10 donors include several right-wing billionaires who give frequently to Republican campaigns.

"I'm being targeted by AIPAC because not only do I believe Palestinians deserve to live freely and peacefully just like Israelis, but because I want to protect our democracy from Republican extremism," Bush toldThe New York Times on Monday. "I want to codify abortion rights, I want to pass meaningful gun violence prevention legislation, and I want to raise taxes on billionaires—all things AIPAC, their GOP donors, and the insurrectionists they endorse, oppose."

"Wesley Bell went from running against Josh Hawley, an actual right-wing insurrectionist, to taking thousands of dollars from the donors of Josh Hawley, Donald Trump, and almost the entire Missouri Republican delegation to run against Missouri's first Black congresswoman."

Bush has been an early and persistent voice calling for a cease-fire in Gaza, helping to introduce the "Cease-Fire Now Resolution" in mid-October.

"We can't be silent about Israel's ethnic cleansing campaign," she posted on social media on October 29.

Bell, in contrast, has thrown his support behind Israel and President Joe Biden's handling of the conflict. In interviews, he has announced his intention to "stand with the president" and "stand with our allies," according toMother Jones. When asked at a Maryland Heights Township Democrats meeting in November if Israel should be held to account for excessive force as Bell has argued should be the case for U.S. police officers, he responded:

"It is offensive to me that you would say that Israel defending itself is genocide. Genocide is intentionally trying to wipe out a people. And no reasonable person would say that is Israel's intention."

In the same response, he said that Bush's statement that Israel was engaging in ethnic cleansing was "wrong" and "misguided," as the Riverfront Times reported.

Bell's strongly pro-Israel stance and endorsement from AIPAC has prompted progressive commenters to link his campaign to the broader effort to unseat the Squad.

"I don't think we can talk about a Wesley Bell without talking about a George Lat­imer challenging Jamaal Bowman [in New York]; or without talking about a Bhavini Patel, who's challenging Summer Lee in Pennsylvania; or Don Samuels and Sarah Gad, who are still auditioning for who will get the AIPAC endorsement" against Rep. Ilhan Omar in Minnesota, Usamah Andrabi of Justice Democrats told Mother Jones. "It is one big fight."

Bell's campaign has also raised questions because, in mid-October, he was running against Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) before switching to run against Bush at the end of the month.

"Wesley Bell went from running against Josh Hawley, an actual right-wing insurrectionist, to taking thousands of dollars from the donors of Josh Hawley, Donald Trump, and almost the entire Missouri Republican delegation to run against Missouri's first Black congresswoman," Andrabi told the Times.

Megan Green, the president of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen who supports Bush, told Mother Jones that she thought it was "highly likely" that Bell was recruited by AIPAC to run against Bush.

However, it's unclear if Bell and Bush's divergent views on Israel's war on Gaza are influencing voters. In the poll, which surveyed 401 potential voters between February 7 and 9, 35% said they sympathized more with Israelis and 21% with Palestinians, but the largest share—44%—said they were "not sure" who they sympathized with more.

Both Bell and Bush have local strengths and vulnerabilities. Bell is the first Black prosecuting attorney in St. Louis County. He is part of the progressive prosecutors movement and was elected in the wake of widespread protests against the police killing of Michael Brown in 2014. In office, he has ended death penalty prosecutions in the county; kept 2,200 low-level, non-violent offenders out of prison, directing them toward alternatives like training or healthcare instead; and set up a unit to look into wrongful imprisonment, according to The New York Times.

However, he also campaigned on a promise to reopen the case into Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot Brown, and then decided in office that there was not enough evidence to prosecute, which angered some of the activists who had campaigned for him.

Bush, meanwhile, has faced criticism from unions who backed her during her first run because of her decision to vote against the bipartisan infrastructure bill. The Laborers' International Union of North America has switched its endorsement from Bush to Bell. The congresswoman is also under investigation for using government money for private security, an accusation she denies.

In addition to leading her in the polls, Bell is also leading Bush in fundraising. His campaign had raised $600,000 by the end of January while the Bush campaign had approximately $215,000 in cash on hand, Mother Jones reported.

GOP firm Remington Research Group commissioned Monday's poll for the Missouri Scout, according toThe Hill; it had a 4.9 percentage-point margin of error.