Rep. Cori Bush, the “Squad” member from Missouri known for her radically progressive takes, has continued getting more and more bad news in the run-up to her primary election in Missouri’s First Congressional District, which will take place today, August 6. Particularly, the polling data shows that Bush is down dramatically against Wesley Bell, her primary challenger.

As background, the Squad has faced a hard time in this election cycle, largely due to its hostile stance against Israel. For example, Congressman Jamaal Bowman lost his primary race in New York, with the American Israeli Political Action Committee (AIPAC) pouring money into the race to defeat him.

Now, Rep. Cori Bush, who holds similar stances on Israel, is down dramatically against Wesley Bell, a prosecutor from the area who is similarly to the left, but better liked than Rep. Bush. In fact, the Democratic Majority for Israel, DMFI PAC, recently carried out a polling operation that shows Rep. Bell leading Bush 48 percent to 42 percent, which is significantly outside the margin of error for the poll.

Anjan Mukherjee, a spokesperson for Wesley Bell’s campaign, released a statement regarding the poll and primary race. Mukherjee began the statement by saying, “Wesley is finishing the last few days of this primary campaign the way he’s been running the whole time: talking with people, hearing their concerns and sharing his vision for better representation for this district.”

Continuing, Mukherjee indicated that Mr. Bell sees his chances of winning as significant and that his past wins show that the local voters like him and will vote for him. She said, “That’s how he was elected as a city councilman and county prosecutor, and it’s why he will be the next member of Congress from MO-01.”

Rep. Bush’s woes have come largely because of her Israel stance and the local Jewish community has been mobilized against her in the primary. Such is what Benjamin Singer, the CEO of the Jewish community organization St. Louis Votes, noted, saying he sees the turnout amongst local Jews as being quite high.

Particularly, he said he anticipates “record turnout among Jewish St. Louisans, in part due to our grassroots organizing, door-knocking, phone banking and work with synagogues and other community institutions.” He added, “People are incredibly worried and upset by the skyrocketing antisemitism across our country.”

Similarly, Missouri state representative Stacey Newman said,  “The Jewish people are simply fighting for our right to survive.” Rep. Newman added, “I’ve never worked on a race where I had to think about mine and my staff’s safety every day or had to check in with a security advisor frequently.” She further noted, “it only seems to motivate volunteers to keep showing up.”

The UAW, on the other hand, threw in its lot in this primary election with Rep. Cori Bush, saying, in a post on its X (formerly Twitter) account, “Cori Bush has always been there for working class people. And the UAW has her back. Missouri, vote Cori Bush for Congress on Tuesday, August 6th!”

 Watch Rep. Bush speak about potentially losing to Bell here:

Featured image credit: U.S. Rep Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, and Cori Bush speak at the Mississippi River in Minneapolis asking for President Biden to stop Line 3 pipeline construction.