Cori Bush, ousted for her anti-Israel rhetoric, announces a comeback campaign while accusing AIPAC of silencing her “truth.”
Former Missouri congresswoman Cori Bush, one of the most outspoken anti-Israel voices in US politics and a prominent member of the far-left “Squad,” announced on Friday that she will run again for Congress — less than a year after being decisively voted out by her own party.
Bush made the announcement in a campaign video framing her defeat as a conspiracy by “powerful forces,” accusing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) of targeting her because of her anti-Israel positions.
“Right now, we are in the fight of our lives. It isn’t politics as usual,” Bush declared. “Because I spoke truth, they pushed back, attacked my name, my motives, spread lies and hate.”
Bush lost her Democratic primary in 2024 to Rep. Wesley Bell, a fellow progressive known for his strong pro-Israel stance. Bell went on to win the general election with broad bipartisan support. Reports indicated that AIPAC invested $8.6 million in the race to defeat Bush — a campaign many Jewish and pro-Israel voters viewed as a referendum on the rise of anti-Israel extremism within the Democratic Party.
“Cori Bush was one of the most hostile, anti-Israel voices in Congress,” said AIPAC spokesman Marshall Wittmann. “Our community was proud to help defeat her and to elect a strong Democratic leader who fights for the people of St. Louis.”
Bush, meanwhile, continues to tout her support for Gaza as a badge of honor. In her video, she listed her criticism of US aid to Israel among her top “achievements.”
Her history of inflammatory remarks includes calling for an end to what she described as “US government support for Israeli military occupation and apartheid” — comments made immediately after Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which the White House condemned as “wrong, repugnant, and disgraceful.”
Bush has also accused the American government of funding Israel “to police and kill Palestinians,” refused interviews with Jewish media outlets, and frequently aligned with anti-Israel campaigns seeking to condition or cut off US military aid to the Jewish state.
Her renewed bid to return to Congress signals an attempt to revive the far-left’s anti-Israel narrative, even as mainstream Democrats increasingly distance themselves from the rhetoric of the “Squad.”
For many pro-Israel advocates, Bush’s re-election campaign is a stark reminder that the battle against antisemitic disinformation cloaked as activism is far from over.
