Wesley Bell, a St. Louis prosecutor who’s mounting a formidable Democratic main problem towards Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), is campaigning as somebody who will produce extra tangible outcomes for the district whereas sharing a lot of her similar left-leaning values.
However one line on Bell’s political resume is at odds along with his promise to champion a progressive agenda. In 2006, Bell managed the marketing campaign of a conservative Republican operating for a similar seat Bell is searching for as we speak.
The candidate, Mark J. Byrne, ran as a fierce abortion opponent and gun rights crusader. “I intend to protect the rights of the unborn,” his marketing campaign web site learn. “I believe that there is no greater job for elected representatives.”
He in the end misplaced to incumbent Rep. William Lacy Clay Jr., who remained in workplace till Bush efficiently challenged him in 2020.
“Nearly 20 years ago, Wesley helped a longtime friend by volunteering with his campaign, in spite of their differences in political affiliations and positions on many issues,” stated Anjan Mukherjee, a spokesperson for Bell’s marketing campaign. “Wesley has been a progressive prosecutor, working to overturn wrongful convictions and refusing to prosecute women for abortions, and he will be a progressive member of Congress who works with President Biden.”
Byrne, who’s now a municipal decide in a neighboring county, stated Bell ran his marketing campaign as a pleasant favor. The 2 met as younger legal professionals in St. Louis County, he recalled, and have become mates over years of poker nights.
“He didn’t run a Republican’s campaign, he ran a friend’s campaign,” Byrne stated in an interview this week with HuffPost. “He and I didn’t see eye to eye on political issues, but he did the best that he could to try to help me get elected.”
Bell has prevented any point out of the Byrne marketing campaign as he crisscrosses Missouri’s bright-blue 1st Congressional District, which incorporates St. Louis and Ferguson, the birthplace of the Black Lives Matter motion in 2014.
Bush and Bell each emerged from the Ferguson rebellion as political leaders. And the first has largely revolved round their dueling claims to higher signify progressive voters. In her 4 years in Congress, Bush, a former nurse, rallied nationwide help for a COVID-era eviction moratorium and led the primary requires a cease-fire within the ongoing combating in Gaza. Bell, claiming Bush will get higher headlines than outcomes, is campaigning on his file because the St. Louis County prosecutor, a job during which he pursued options to incarceration for individuals convicted of minor offenses.
Supporters of Bush argue Bell just isn’t a real progressive however the Democrat most well-liked by Republicans.
“Bell’s willingness to defend abortion rights depends solely on how it helps his own political career,” stated Usamah Andrabi, the spokesperson for Justice Democrats, a grassroots group supporting Bush. “There is no excuse that can justify leading the campaign to elect a Republican extremist.”
As of Could, Bell has raised greater than $65,000 in contributions from donors who usually give to Republicans. They embody a former GOP speaker of the Missouri Home, the billionaire hedge fund founder Daniel Loeb, and the previous finance chair for Sen. Tim Scott’s (R-S.C.) presidential tremendous PAC.
On the finish of the final fundraising quarter, Bell reported having about twice as a lot money readily available as Bush.
Bell has additionally benefited from greater than $300,000 in advertisements paid for by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s tremendous PAC. Whereas AIPAC backs candidates of each events who help U.S. army help for Israel, progressive critics have famous the PAC’s high contributors are GOP megadonors. Bush is one in every of AIPAC’s high targets within the 2024 elections.
“The fact that my ‘Democratic’ opponent’s entrance into politics was managing a Republican congressional campaign for a far-right, anti-abortion extremist is strikingly consistent, and it should tell voters everything they need to know,” Bush stated in an announcement. “He can’t be trusted to protect our reproductive freedoms and abortion rights, secure our democracy, and stand up to the MAGA Republican extremists in Congress.”
“He and I didn’t see eye to eye on political issues, but he did the best that he could to try to help me get elected.”
– Mark J. Byrne
Bell’s 2006 stint as a GOP marketing campaign hand fell throughout a historic wave yr for Democrats. Amid deepening anger over President George W. Bush’s mishandling of the struggle in Iraq and Hurricane Katrina and a drumbeat of Republican scandals, Democrats simply recaptured the Home and Senate.
Byrne, the candidate Bell labored for, epitomized the form of staunch conservative voters rejected.
“I am pro-life and I will support a constitutional amendment to protect the rights of the unborn,” Byrne advised the St. Louis Put up-Dispatch. “I will protect our Second Amendment right to bear arms. … I will increase funding for the border patrol and crack down on employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.”
When the Put up-Dispatch editorial board supported his extra reasonable main rival, Byrne’s marketing campaign spun it as a “wonderful endorsement” of his “strongly conservative positions.”
“The Post is correct,” his marketing campaign web site learn. “While some may waver on their positions, Mark will not compromise his integrity just to become the ‘moderate’ candidate.”
Byrne gained the first. However as a first-time political candidate in a Democratic stronghold, he proved a weak match for Clay, whose father had held the identical congressional seat for 32 years earlier than him.
Byrne now denies he ran a right-wing conservative marketing campaign, and argues that Bell’s function in his congressional bid shouldn’t damage his personal political future.
“In all the conversations that I have ever had with Wesley, he’s not a Republican, he doesn’t think like a Republican or have a Republican agenda,” Byrne stated. “He’s always been a lifelong Democrat.”
However Megan Inexperienced, the president of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen who’s supporting Bush for reelection, isn’t reassured.
“It is a little strange to me that this is where you’d be putting your efforts in 2006, when there were a good number of Democrats running for office that needed help and support,” she stated. “Friendship is one thing. But empowering friends who have problematic viewpoints to get into positions of power, that’s concerning.”
