{"id":767052,"date":"2022-08-03T04:02:25","date_gmt":"2022-08-03T04:02:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/?p=404281"},"modified":"2022-08-03T04:02:25","modified_gmt":"2022-08-03T04:02:25","slug":"st-louis-voters-keep-cori-bush-as-missouri-democrats-choose-anheuser-busch-heir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/08\/03\/st-louis-voters-keep-cori-bush-as-missouri-democrats-choose-anheuser-busch-heir\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Louis Voters Keep Cori Bush as Missouri Democrats Choose Anheuser-Busch Heir"},"content":{"rendered":"
Rep. Cori Bush<\/u> sailed to a comfortable reelection Tuesday night, sending a message that St. Louis Democrats are happy with their\u00a0nonconformist representative. Her victory marks a win for progressive incumbents in an election year that has seen them embattled by outside spending and little supported \u2014 if not outright opposed \u2014 by the party establishment. But progressives faltered statewide: In the open race for retiring Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt\u2019s seat, populist-styled Lucas Kunce lost the primary to Trudy Busch Valentine, an heir to the Anheuser-Busch fortune.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t like the fact that we don\u2019t accept any corporate money. They don\u2019t like that I speak the way that I speak because I came from this community and I sound like my community. They don\u2019t love the fact that, instead of being what they call dignified, I show up as a protestor, that I\u2019ve been on the frontlines forever,”\u00a0Bush told the crowd at her election-night speech.\u00a0“But our work isn\u2019t based on what they like. Our work is based on what folks need.\u201d<\/p>\n
A former nurse and activist, Bush gained prominence locally as the Black Lives Matter movement took to the streets in 2014, after Ferguson police shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown. Since her election to Congress in 2020, Bush has pursued a confrontational style of politics that has rallied activists<\/a> but has often put her at odds with party leadership, becoming one of the only congressional Democrats willing to say \u201cdefund the police,” and bucking party leadership<\/a> in a row over decoupling an infrastructure bill from a wider progressive agenda.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bush riled St. Louis’s old guard <\/a>two years ago\u00a0by unseating longtime Rep. William Lacy Clay, the scion of a political family. This year, in her first primary challenge as an incumbent, that old guard came gunning for\u00a0Bush in the form of state senator and minority caucus whip Steven Roberts Jr.<\/p>\n Roberts\u00a0was fond of saying that St. Louis voters had \u201cbuyer\u2019s remorse\u201d over Bush, including in remarks to Fox News<\/a> on Monday. St. Louis Democrats, who broke for Bush by a margin of\u00a0more than 2-to-1, appeared to disagree.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n