Cori Bush becomes the second Squad member to lose her primary as she’s ousted from Missouri seat

Democratic representative Cori Bush became the second member of the Squad to lose her primary as county prosecutor Wesley Bell beat her in a grueling and expensive primary on Tuesday evening.

Pro-Israel groups spent massive amounts of money to depose Bush in the district where she pulled off an upset victory against a longtime incumbent Democrat in 2020.

The United Democracy Project, a super PAC of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, spent $9.2m against Bush, according to AdImpact. That made the primary the second-most expensive one of the year after UDP spent millions in opposition tofellow Squad member Representative Jamaal Bowman of New York.

By contrast, Bush’s campaign only spent $1.1m and the Justice Democrats, a group that supports left-wing candidates, spent only $2.5m in the district that includes St. Louis.

Bush is one a number of Democrats who have advocated for a ceasefire after Hamas launched a surprise attack in Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people, which led Israel to respond with a military campaign that has killed almost 40,000 people in Gaza.

She and many fellow Democrats boycotted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s joint address to Congress last month. Bush also boycotted Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s joint address to Congress before the October 7 attack.

But ads from the United Democracy Project did not mention Israel, rather the fact she voted against the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure bill, arguing she was an ineffective legislator who regularly crossed President Joe Biden.

Bush did vote against the legislation on the premise that she feared that passing it first without Build Back Better--Democrats’ proposed social spending bill that they hoped to pass along party