Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) has once again used her campaign funds for a personal payday, according to a July 15 campaign finance filing, which showed that the “Squad” member’s husband received $15,000 from the campaign funds during the second quarter of 2024.
Bush, a member of the far-left “Squad” and one of the biggest “Defund the Police” advocates, has paid more than $812,000 for private security services since 2019. More than $150,000 of those payments for security were given to her husband, Cortney Merritts, in regular increments of $5,000 per month.
Officials became concerned about the payments after it was revealed that Bush had married Merritts in secret in February 2023. Prior to the marriage, the campaign payments to Merritts had been classified as fees for “security services.” Following the secret wedding, Bush began classifying the payments to her husband as “wage expenses,” according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records.
Despite Bush’s continued support for removing Americans rights to self-defense and defunding the police that protect and serve the American people, the Democrat congresswoman has justified the obscene amount of money paid for her own security by claiming that there have been “relentless threats” to her “physical safety and life.”
In a statement issued in January after a probe into her campaign’s private security budget was initiated by the Department of Justice (DOJ), Bush claimed: “As a rank-and-file member of Congress, I am not entitled to personal protection by the House, and instead have used campaign funds as permissible to retain security services. I have not used any federal tax dollars for personal security services. Any reporting that I have used federal funds for personal security is simply false.”
????DOJ conducting criminal probe into “Squad” member Rep. Cori Bush in relation to misspending of federal security money
Could this be connected to the THOUSANDS she paid to her HUSBAND for private security while voting to defund the police for Americans?
Throwback to the time… pic.twitter.com/Zy8Xl7bq8E
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) January 30, 2024
However, unfortunately for Bush and Merritts, a recent poll released on July 14 showed that the congresswoman may be poised to lose her reelection bid to a Democrat primary challenger, St. Louis prosecuting attorney Wesley Bell, by a staggering 23 percentage points in Missouri’s August 6 primary.
???? MO-01 Democratic Primary poll by McLaughlin and Associates for anti-Bush PAC
• Wesley Bell: 56%
• Cori Bush: 33%
• Not sure/other: 11%
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Fav/unfav
• Wesley Bell: 70-18 (+52)
• Cori Bush: 50-47 (+3)
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#277 (0.5/3.0) | 300 LV | 6/28-7/1 | ±5.7%https://t.co/Aqz3hpGCHF pic.twitter.com/bTaZSrx8MX— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) July 14, 2024
This devastating loss would not only be a blow to the “Squad” — which already lost Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) in his primary last month after he was censured for pulling the fire alarm to allegedly stall a vote — but it would also be a blow to Bush and Merritts’ bank accounts.
