Congresswoman Cori Bush, who is facing a well-funded challenger in the Democratic primary for her Missouri seat, says she cannot condemn Hamas because she does not “know” enough about Hamas and is not in communication with them. She says she won’t condemn them because she and Black Lives Matter protesters have also been called terrorists, and it would be wrong for her to talk about “labeling” the group. 

Ms. Bush was first elected to Congress in 2020 after beating 10-term representative Lacy Clay. She got her start as a Black Lives Matter organizer in 2015, which she then spun into a political career. 

She has made a name for herself as a fiercely anti-Israel lawmaker who was just one of two House members to vote against a bill that would bar members of Hamas and October 7 attackers from coming to the United States. 

Ms. Bush tells the New York Times that it isn’t her place to be issuing condemnations, because Hamas — like herself and other Black Lives Matter organizers — want “peace.”

“Would they qualify to me as a terrorist organization? Yes. But do I know that? Absolutely not,” Ms. Bush in an interview ahead of her Tuesday primary. 

“I have no communication with them. All I know is that we were considered terrorists, we were considered Black identity extremists and all we were doing was trying to get peace,” she added. “I’m not trying to compare us, but that taught me to be careful about labeling if I don’t know.”

Pro-Israel groups have poured nearly $10 million into her primary fight to back St. Louis county’s prosecuting attorney, Wesley Bell, who has criticized Ms. Bush for failing to stand by America’s allies and work with the Biden administration on critical issues for the district. Many of the advertisements and physical mailers being sent to St. Louis voters highlight Ms. Bush’s vote against the president’s bipartisan infrastructure law — a $1 trillion spending package that would have created thousands of jobs in Ms. Bush’s district. 

The same lines of attack were deployed against another so-called “Squad” member, Congressman Jamaal Bowman, who was targeted by pro-Israel groups and moderate voters for his left-wing record and his inability to accomplish anything legislatively. He lost his primary to Westchester County executive George Latimer.