Far-left Rep. Cori Bush routed a centrist primary challenger on Tuesday, easily securing the Democratic nomination for Missouri’s 1st Congressional District and likely another term in Congress representing the deep-blue St. Louis-area seat.
Bush dispatched Steve Roberts, a prominent state senator and former state representative who sought to portray the first-term congresswoman as out of touch with her constituents. An outspoken progressive and member of the hard-left “Squad,” Bush came under heavy criticism from Roberts for her alleged “hypocrisy” on issues, including through her decision to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on private security for herself despite strongly supporting “defund the police” movements. Roberts also attacked Bush’s votes against the bipartisan infrastructure bill as well as a domestic terrorism prevention bill proposed by Democrats in the wake of May’s mass shooting in Buffalo, New York.
While Bush received endorsements from high-profile progressives such as Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Roberts’s campaign was backed by former Rep. William Lacy Clay, a centrist who represented the 1st District for 20 years until being defeated by Bush in the 2020 Democratic primary for the seat.
Accusations of sexual abuse have followed Roberts since 2015, including a 2016 rape allegation made by a now-deceased state representative. Roberts was also arrested by police in April 2015 on suspicion of sexually assaulting another woman and eventually agreed to pay her $100,000 to settle a civil suit filed against him.
The sexual abuse allegations leveled against Roberts made his congressional candidacy highly controversial and seriously impeded his efforts to consolidate support from the Democratic establishment in his bid to oust Bush. The Missouri branch of NARAL Pro-Choice America, a powerful abortion rights advocacy group, blacklisted a slate of pro-Roberts Democratic state legislators as a result of their support for his candidacy, citing “key value discrepancies” with officeholders who would back an individual that “allows for and sustains a culture of abuse.”
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A former racial justice activist, Bush is set to cruise to victory in the November general election. Competing in a district that President Joe Biden carried with more than 80% of the vote in 2020, Bush is not expected to have any trouble winning another term in Congress.
