Cori Bush

Cori Anika Bush (born July 21, 1976) is an American politician, nurse, pastor, and Black Lives Matter activist who served as the U.S. representative for Missouri's 1st congressional district from 2021 to 2025. The district includes all of the city of St. Louis and most of northern St. Louis County.

A member of the Democratic Party, Bush defeated 10-term incumbent Lacy Clay in a 2020 U.S. House of Representatives primary election primarily viewed as an upset, advancing to the November general election in a solidly Democratic congressional district. Bush is the first African-American woman to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives from Missouri. She ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary for the district in 2018 and the 2016 U.S. Senate election in Missouri. Bush was featured in the 2019 Netflix related documentary film Knock Down the House, which covered her first primary challenge to Clay. Bush was a member of the group known as "the Squad" in the U.S. House.

In August 2024, Bush lost the Democratic nomination for her seat to a primary challenger in a race described as having "received outsize attention", with politician Wesley Bell winning (45.6% vs. 51.1%). Pro-Israel lobbying groups in the U.S. had spent large amounts to defeat Bush in the context of her positions on the Gaza war.