Missouri still backsliding into MAGA swamp

Progressives suffered a major blow in Tuesday night’s primaries as Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) became the second “squad” member to lose to a challenger this cycle.

Coming just hours after Vice President Harris announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate in a move seen as a win for the progressive wing of the party, Bush’s loss put internal party frictions over the Israel-Hamas war on full display.

[...]

Bush’s defeat [to St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell] makes her the second member of the squad to lose reelection after Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D) lost his seat in New York earlier this year. [O]ther high-profile members, like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) are likely to win reelection handily. And another progressive, Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), won her primary challenge earlier this year despite being outspent.

  The Kill

Maybe it's more about Missourians than progressives.

AIPAC’s super PAC spent big to unseat her in the primary, reportedly throwing more than $8 million into the race.

The group’s opposition to Bush came in response to her vocal criticism of Israel’s war against the terrorist organization Hamas in Gaza.

She was one of just a few House members who opposed a resolution that expressed support for Israel last year, and when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress last month, Bush called it “sickening that Congress gave him a standing ovation.”

I agree with Bush.

Meanwhile in Kansas...

Johnson County Sheriff Calvin Hayden kickstarted an investigation after the 2020 election, despite claims from local officials that there was no widespread fraud, as reported by The Associated Press.

Hayden paused the investigation last month after producing no criminal charges and stoking suspicion toward state and local election systems.

[...]

On Tuesday, Hayden appeared headed for defeat in his GOP primary to Republican Doug Bedford, a former U.S. Navy SEAL who served as Hayden’s undersheriff from 2017 to 2021. He’ll face Democrat Byron Roberson, the police chief of Prairie Village, in the fall.

The incumbent’s likely defeat comes after he ran unopposed four years earlier, and signals divisions among Republicans in the state surrounding claims of election fraud.

Former President Trump has refused to commit to accepting 2024 results and has continued to tout his debunked claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, while some in the party have pressed fellow Republicans to move on from the last cycle.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 07:53 am:

UPDATE 02:16 pm:

Bush said in a fiery speech after her loss that leaving Congress will only “takes some strings off.”

“Because now, there are some strings that I have attached. And as much as I love my job, all they did was radicalize me, and now they should be afraid,” she said.

“They’re about to see this other Cori, this other side,” she continued. “There is nothing that happens in my life that happens in vain. So, this happened because it was meant to happen. And let me say, it’s because of the work that I need to do.”

“And let me say this: AIPAC, I’m coming to tear your kingdom down!” she added to cheers.

  The Hill

Well.