The Lobby That Buys Elections, Cheaper Every Cycle

Two years ago Cori Bush stood in front of AIPAC and promised to "tear your kingdom down." On Tuesday, the kingdom sent the bill again — just a smaller one this time. It still cashed the check.

Wesley Bell, the man who unseated her in 2024, beat her again in their rematch — this time by roughly 45 points. Not a nail-biter. A rout.

Here's the arithmetic of that rout. In 2024, AIPAC's super PAC spent about $9 million tearing Bush down. This time, roughly $2 to $3 million did the job. Same outcome. A third of the price. Someone in that lobby's finance department deserves a bonus for efficiency.

Bush had genuine tailwind this cycle. She was one of the first members of Congress to call Israel's war in Gaza a "genocide", and Democratic voters have been drifting toward exactly that framing.

In June, Democratic Socialists of America-backed challengers ousted three sitting Democrats, including Adriano Espaillat, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, who lost to a 32-year-old community organizer by three points. The socialist wave was real. It just broke somewhere else.

Missouri's 1st District is safely Democratic. Bell's actual November opponent doesn't exist yet in any meaningful sense — he's already won the only election that counted. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and the Congressional Black Caucus PAC lined up behind him anyway, because nothing says "grassroots energy" like the entire party leadership showing up to make sure a safe seat stays exactly as safe as it already was.

Bush's allies spent under $200,000 total. AIPAC's people alone outspent her tenfold on advertising and still had budget left for coffee.

So which is the actual story here — that a progressive movement is rising inside the Democratic Party, or that it's rising everywhere except the districts a well-funded lobby has decided to keep?

#AIPAC #Democrats #Missouri #primary

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