ST. LOUIS—With the Aug. 6 primary less than 50 days out, it’s looking less and less likely that voters will see a debate featuring the three leading Democratic candidates for Missouri’s first congressional district seat.
The incumbent, U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, told Spectrum News on Wednesday that “if candidates want to debate or if they feel they need to then they should if they want to,” but then suggested her opponents haven’t done the work necessary to deserve the platform with her.
Bush, who upset the political establishment in 2020 to upset Rep. Lacy Clay, handily defeated State Sen. Steve Roberts in the 2022 primary en route to re-election in the first district, but this year faces three opponents, including St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell and former State Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal. The winner will be heavily favored to win the general election in November.
On May 31, Bush said she and her team would look into a debate as the primary gets closer.
“We have sent messages by email. We’ve sent messages by phone call, text, certified mail for debates. We’ll send carrier pigeon messages if we need to. We’ve made it clear we think we should not only do one debate, we should do several debates,” Bell told Spectrum News June 9. “If you’re going to talk about positions, misconstrued positions, let’s sit down and have those conversations where you gotta answer questions and I’ll answer questions and so far, the congresswoman hasn’t been willing to agree to that.”
Wednesday, Bush suggested she’s already proven herself, particularly with the activist class of the Democratic electorate
“What were you doing before you ever decided to run for the seat? Do you have any skin in the game as far as the issues that will be tackled with that particular seat? Have you done that work at all,” she asked
“If your candidate does not have some type of skin in the game on the issues, real skin I don’t mean I showed up to a protest and got on the mic for three minutes and somebody else wrote my speech and they didn’t see me again for three years, no I mean some actual work where the advocates that do the work on those issues can say yes this is our person,” Bush added, without mentioning her opponents by name.
Bush first came to public note during the protests in Ferguson following the death of Michael Brown, Jr. in 2014, while Bell became a Ferguson City Councilman in 2015 before defeating St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch in 2018 on a progressive platform. Chappelle-Nadal served in the Missouri General Assembly between 2005 and 2020, and was active both on issues stemming from the Ferguson protests but also on the issue of nuclear contamination in the region, a cause Bush has taken up in Congress.
"Wesley stands on his track record of delivering progressive results for the St. Louis region, but apparently Rep. Bush doesn't want to defend her own record,” a Bell campaign spokesperson told Spectrum News Thursday. “Our campaign has repeatedly reached out to Rep. Bush requesting a debate, because Wesley believes that voters deserve to hear directly from candidates."
“I don't fear debates. I crave them because it's an opportunity to show voters how much a candidate wants a position. I've never had the pleasure of not having opposition, so Cori better get used to it in these final weeks,” Chappelle-Nadal said. “How does one fight Republicans, when they can't even compete among Democrats without a temper tantrum?”
Per party policy, the Missouri Democratic party is taking a hands-off approach to the race, although a spokesperson told Spectrum News earlier this month with regard to debates, “the more opportunities for voters to hear from the candidates on the issues they care about the better.”