Ferguson Activist Cori Bush Defeats 10-Term Incumbent Lacy Clay

ST. LOUIS, MO — In a stunning upset, Cori Bush has defeated 10-term incumbent U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay in Missouri's 1st District. The progressive activist who found her political voice during the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Missouri, has been a frequent presence at women's marches, anti-war demonstrations and Black Lives Matter protests in the years since.

If she wins the general election in November, as is likely, Bush will be the first Black woman to represent Missouri in Congress.

A former nurse and single mother, this is Bush's second run for the seat. Last year, she was featured alongside New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a Netflix documentary about the 2018 midterms called "Knock Down the House." Like Bush, political newcomer AOC defeated her own 10-term incumbent in one of 2018's biggest political upsets.

Ocasio-Cortez campaigned with Bush in St. Louis during her first attempt to unseat Clay two years ago, but she declined to endorse Bush this year. Justice Democrats, a political group closely aligned with Ocasio-Cortez and other members of "the squad," a group of progressive first-term congresswomen, did endorse Bush, as did U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, who made an unsuccessful run for the White House earlier this year.

Bush fired up the crowd at Sanders' packed St. Louis rally ahead of the state's March presidential primary, shortly before the coronavirus pandemic put an end to political rallies across the country.

"This is our moment," Bush said then. "This is our moment. Black, brown, white, Asian, indigenous, immigrant, descendants of Africans who were enslaved in America and first-generation refugees: This is our moment. Gay, straight, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, asexual, trans and queer: This is our moment. Young and elder, religious, atheist and spiritual: This is our moment. The disabled, the misgendered, the marginalized, the counted-out and pushed-aside: This is our moment."

In Missouri's 1st District, that moment came Tuesday.

"Tonight, Missouri's 1st District decided that an incremental approach isn't going to work any longer," Bush said during a celebratory speech Tuesday night. "We've been called radicals, terrorists. We've been dismissed as an impossible fringe movement. But now, we are a multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-generational, multi-state mass movement united in demanding change, in demanding accountability, in demanding our police, our government, our country, recognize that Black lives do, indeed, matter, and that these are not just words or symbolic gestures."

Bush's opponent, who has deep ties to the community, had been in the seat for 20 years. Before Clay was elected in 2001, his father, William Lacy Clay Sr., had held the seat for more than 30 years. Clay outspent Bush by about 4 to 3, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Bush won the race with 72,812 votes to Clay's 68,201, according to the Missouri Secretary of State website. The vote totals are unofficial and still need to be certified.

During her victory speech, Bush thanked supporters and critics alike.

"We want to say thank you to all who went out on a limb to support this grassroots campaign because they believed in us. And we want to say to those that didn't believe in us, we're going to take care of you too," Bush said. "Let me also thank somebody that stood with me that did not have to stand with me that you all probably know very well — I've got to call out Sen. Bernie Sanders."

A short time later, Bush tweeted out a slogan popular with Sanders' campaign: