Bell Touts $600K in Donations Since Pivoting to Challenge Cori Bush

The St. Louis County Prosecutor is challenging his fellow Democrat in the 1st congressional district

Jan 29, 2024 at 4:03 pm

Wesley Bell. DANNY WICENTOWSKI

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Wesley Bell is touting big fundraising numbers this morning as incumbent Congresswoman Cori Bush's campaign has some red ink on its books.

In a press release sent out this morning, Bell, who is currently the prosecuting attorney for St. Louis County, said that he raised $492,000 in the final months of 2023 after entering the race for Missouri's first congressional district in October.

The statement also said that Bell had continued the strong fundraising in the new year, pulling in another $100,000 in the first weeks of January, bringing his total haul to $600,000.

Meanwhile, Bush's campaign is $130,000 in debt with $20,000 cash on hand, according to Federal Elections Commission records. Those records, however, only cover the period that ended September 30, 2023. We reached out to her campaign this morning to get a better sense of where her fundraising stands today, but haven’t heard back yet. We’ll update hit post if we hear back.

At the time preceding that last campaign finance report, Bush was in a much different position.

Bell was running for a seat in the U.S. Senate and Bush seemed to be on a glidepath to her third term in the U.S. House of Representatives. But after Bush faced criticism for her response to the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, Bell jumped out of the race for Senate and announced he was challenging Bush instead. The race is now anticipated to see significant spending by third parties critical of Bush’s progressive politics and stance on Israel.

At her campaign kickoff on Saturday, Bush spoke to a crowd of about 200 at her campaign headquarters in Northwoods, joined by her congressional colleague U.S. Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit), also a vocal critic of Israel and the only Palestinian American in Congress.

Several local elected leaders were also in attendance, showing their support of the incumbent congressman, including Aldermen Rasheen Aldrige, Alderwoman Daniela Velazquez and President of the Board of Aldermen Megan Green.