<\/p>\n
Fueled by pro-Israel<\/span> funding, Rep. Wesley Bell, D-Mo., fended off a primary challenge from former Rep. Cori Bush, whom he ousted from Congress two years ago.<\/p>\n The race in Missouri\u2019s 1st Congressional District was one of several contests on Tuesday pitting the left and democratic socialists against establishment Democrats in a midterm cycle<\/a> defined by competing visions for the future of the party. Just over an hour after polls closed, The Associated Press called in Bell\u2019s favor.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Before polls closed on Tuesday evening, Bell brushed off<\/a> Bush\u2019s criticism of his support from the pro-Israel lobby.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019ve seen over and over is talking about an issue that is not impacting folks right here in St. Louis, and while we take those issues seriously, you know, the M in Missouri doesn\u2019t stand for Middle East. It stands for Missouri,\u201d Bell said.<\/p>\n The question going into Tuesday\u2019s primaries, including the widely watched Michigan Democratic Senate race, was whether progressives could win in the Midwest<\/a>. Despite a decent track record in the region<\/a>, it was unclear if the energy that boosted progressives in other primaries from New York to Colorado<\/a> would be enough to help Bush, a former member of Congress and another democratic socialist<\/a>, come back from a bruising loss two years ago.<\/p>\n Outside groups opposing Bush poured money into the rematch, spending $4.6 million against her or backing Bell. In comparison, Bush drew just $200,000 in outside spending in her favor. Most of that money came from the super PAC for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel group that took credit<\/a> for ousting Bush last cycle. The group\u2019s super PAC, United Democracy Project, spent $3 million against Bush this year, far less than the $8 million<\/a> it poured out against her in 2024 as part of a historic investment<\/a> targeting elected lawmakers critical of Israel.\u00a0<\/p>\n In response to that kind of spending, progressive groups put much more money into this year\u2019s primaries, though they were still heavily outspent. But while groups like Justice Democrats and American Priorities, the new pro-Palestine super PAC<\/a>, pumped record-setting sums in races in Michigan, Colorado, and New York, they did not spend in Bush\u2019s race. Justice Democrats, which backed Bush in her 2020 election, gave Bush its endorsement this cycle but instead concentrated its resources on Tuesday in Michigan in support of state Rep. Donavan McKinney, another democratic socialist, in his bid against Rep. Shri Thanedar<\/a>, D-Mich. Another new pro-Palestine PAC, the Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project, spent $20,000 in support of Bush.<\/p>\n With its funding, United Democracy Project recycled attacks that had helped topple Bush in 2024, hitting her for voting against former President Joe Biden\u2019s infrastructure bill and claiming she had been an ineffective member<\/a> of Congress. In line with that attack, a spokesperson for United Democracy Project, which ran the ads, recently described<\/a> Bush as \u201ca terrible member of Congress who didn\u2019t do her job and didn\u2019t deliver for St. Louis.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Bush\u2019s critics<\/a>, including AIPAC and Bell<\/a>, painted her as failed experiment by the left, pointing to past positions on defunding police and criticism of Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris\u2019s support for Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza. Bush went on to endorse Harris, and many Democrats have come to share<\/a> her views on Israel<\/a>. But her opponents cast her as an \u201cextreme<\/a>\u201d in the party\u2019s left flank who was out of step with voters.\u00a0<\/p>\n