11 months ago
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St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell announced Monday he will drop his bid to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley in 2024, and will instead make a run at a fellow Democrat — U.S. Rep. Cori Bush.
Bell, 48, will oppose Bush in the 2024 Democratic primary for Missouri's 1st Congressional District seat that covers St. Louis and part of St. Louis County. The decision comes as Bush has taken criticism for her response to the Hamas attack on Israel, including her call in a social media post to end "US government support for Israeli military occupation and apartheid.”
Bell and Bush are both Black, and both emerged as political forces in the aftermath of the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, a death that helped spark the national Black Lives Matter movement. Bush was elected to the House in 2020, pulling a stunning upset of Democratic veteran William Lacy Clay.
Two years earlier, Bell pulled an equally surprising upset when he unseated Bob McCulloch as St. Louis County prosecutor.
