Who is Cori Bush?

Cori Bush is the United States Representative from Missouri’s first congressional district who is looking to secure candidature for the mid-term elections at the Democratic Party primaries in August 2022. She will be contesting the primaries against Steve Roberts, a member of the Missouri State Senate.

The 46-year-old Bush is a pastor as well as a registered nurse. She first came into prominence during the Ferguson riots in the state of Missouri in 2014, which was an after-effect of the shooting and subsequent death of Michael Brown by a police officer. During the riots, Bush served as a triage nurse. 

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Bush, a St. Louis native, entered the political forum during the 2016 United States Senate elections in Missouri, where she was handed a defeat in the primaries by former Secretary of State, Jason Kendar. Bush was again defeated in the 2018 primaries by Lacy Clay. It was only in 2020 that Bush tasted her first electoral success, defeating Clay in the primaries and going on to win the general election by a landslide, defeating Republican Anthony Rogers and getting 78% of the total votes.

Bush currently serves in the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Congressional LGBTQ+ Caucus, and the Congressional Black Caucus. The Congresswoman, who has been backed by Senator Bernie Sanders, has on some occasions, even gone against her own party. She voted against the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in November 2021 since the Build Back Better Act was not in accompaniment.

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Despite being a Congresswoman, Bush has refused to renounce activism. Interestingly, she calls herself a “politivist”. “The activist is going to push, is going to be on the ground and listen and have the courage to move things that other people might not feel comfortable moving”, said Bush regarding her stance on political activism on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

The primary elections for the states of Kansas, Washington, Michigan, Missouri, Arizona, and Ohio are scheduled for August 2, 2022. The mid-terms elections will be carried out on November 8.