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. She is a member of the Democratic Party and the Democratic Socialists of America.
Bush was first elected to Congress in 2020 after defeating incumbent Lacy Clay in the Democratic primary. She previously ran against Clay for the seat in 2018. Her 2018 campaign was featured in the 2019 Netflix documentary film Knock Down the House. She is the first African-American woman to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives from Missouri. She was re-elected in 2022.
In 2024, Bush lost the Democratic primary to St. Louis County prosecuting attorney Wesley Bell. She ran again in 2026, losing to Bell in a primary rematch.
Bush was born on July 21, 1976, in St. Louis and graduated from Cardinal Ritter College Prep High School in 1994. Her father, Errol Bush, is an alderman in Northwoods, Missouri, and previously served as mayor. In the summer of 1994, at 18 years old, Bush became pregnant after being raped and had an abortion. A year later, she had a second abortion when she was 19 years old.
Bush studied at Harris–Stowe State University for one year (1995–96) and worked at a preschool until 2001. She earned a Diploma in Nursing from the Lutheran School of Nursing in 2008.
In 2011, Bush established the Kingdom Embassy International Church in St. Louis, Missouri, and served as its pastor until 2014. She became a political activist during the 2014 Ferguson unrest, during which she worked as a triage nurse and organizer, where she said that a police officer hit her. Bush is a Nonviolence 365 Ambassador with the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change.
Bush was a candidate for the 2016 United States Senate election in Missouri. In the Democratic primary, she placed a distant second to Secretary of State Jason Kander. Kander narrowly lost the election to incumbent Republican Roy Blunt.
In 2018, Bush launched a primary campaign against incumbent Democratic representative Lacy Clay in Missouri's 1st congressional district. Described as an "insurgent" candidate, Bush was endorsed by Brand New Congress and Justice Democrats. Her campaign was featured in the Netflix documentary Knock Down the House, alongside those of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Amy Vilela, and Paula Jean Swearengin. Clay defeated Bush 56.7% to 36.9%.
In 2020, Bush ran against Clay again. She was endorsed by progressive organizations, including Justice Democrats, Sunrise Movement, and Brand New Congress, and she received personal endorsements from Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, NY-16 Democratic nominee Jamaal Bowman, former Ohio state senator Nina Turner, activist Angela Davis, and West Virginia Democratic Senate nominee Paula Jean Swearengin.
Bush narrowly defeated Clay in the primary election in what was widely seen as an upset. Bush received 48.5% of the vote, winning St. Louis City and narrowly losing suburban St. Louis County. Her primary victory was considered tantamount to election in the heavily Democratic district. Her primary win ended the Clay family's 52-year hold on the district. Clay's father, Bill, won the seat in 1968 and was succeeded by his son in 2000. The district and its predecessors have been in Democratic hands without interruption since 1911. No Republican has received more than 40% in the district since the late 1940s. With a Cook Partisan Voting Index of D+29, it is easily the most Democratic district in Missouri and tied for the 23rd-most Democratic district in the country.
As expected, Bush won the general election, defeating Republican Anthony Rogers with 78 percent of the vote.
In 2022, Bush ran for reelection to the seat. She was challenged by Steve Roberts, state senator, who received support from previous representative Lacy Clay. Bush won the Democratic primary with almost 70% of the vote.
In 2024, Bush ran for reelection to the seat. On August 6, 2024, Bush lost the Democratic primary to Wesley Bell, the prosecuting attorney of St. Louis County. The primary was the second most-expensive House primary in history, with $9 million in spending against Bush from United Democracy Project, AIPAC's super PAC. The organization targeted Bush after her criticism of Israel during the Gaza war. Bush was the second member of the Squad defeated in a Democratic primary in 2024 following George Latimer's defeat of Jamaal Bowman.
In October 2025, Bush announced her candidacy to reclaim her former congressional seat in the 2026 midterm elections in a rematch against Wesley Bell. She lost by an even greater margin in the Democratic primary.
Soon after being sworn in, Bush was associated with "The Squad", an informal left-wing grouping in the Democratic caucus.
On January 6, 2021, hours after rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol in a failed bid to overturn Donald Trump's loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 election, Bush introduced a resolution to remove every Republican who supported attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election from the House of Representatives. In her support for Trump's second impeachment, Bush called the attack on the Capitol a "white supremacist insurrection" incited by the "white supremacist-in-chief".
In August 2021, Bush took a leading role in fighting to extend the CARES Act's eviction moratorium, sleeping on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to make her point; the CDC extended the moratorium on August 3.
On August 5, 2021, Bush defended spending tens of thousands of dollars on personal security for herself as a member of Congress while also saying Democrats should defund the police, saying, "I get to be here to do the work, so suck it up—and defunding the police has to happen. We need to defund the police." Bush was investigated by the Department of Justice for illegally using campaign funds to pay for the private security. Bush claimed that there were "racist attempts made against my life". Bush was also investigated for using her Member Representaion Allowance money, a fund paid for with taxpayer money, for office expenses. Bush denied the charges., stating that she felt the charges came from her retention of her husband as paid personal security personnel and that she followed all applicable rules in retaining him. No criminal charges were ever levied against Bush. On November 5, 2021, Bush was one of six House Democrats to break with their party and vote with a majority of Republicans against the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act because it was not accompanied by the Build Back Better Act.