Longtime St. Louis Rep. Lacy Clay unseated by Black Lives Matter activist Cori Bush
A major figure in Missouri Democratic politics fell Tuesday night as community activist Cori Bush upset 10-term incumbent William Lacy Clay, Jr. in the 1st Congressional District, unofficial election results show.
Bush, 44, pulled ahead with 48.6 percent of the vote to Clay Jr.’s 46.5 percent, according to the Associated Press.
Clay, 64, has represented Missouri’s 1st Congressional District, which includes St. Louis City and parts of St. Louis County, for 10 terms since 2001. He replaced his father, William Lacy Clay Sr., who served in the role for more than three decades starting in 1969.
The primary was a rematch for Clay and Bush, a pastor and registered nurse. She gained acclaim in the St. Louis area for her civil rights leadership after the 2014 fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson.
In the 2018 primary, Clay won with 57 percent of the vote compared to Bush’s 37 percent.
Since then, she has attracted the admiration of younger activists in the city, including supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement. Bush earned an endorsement from U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and she spoke ahead of his rally in St. Louis before he dropped out of the running for the Democratic presidential nomination earlier this year.
“We’ve been called radicals, terrorists. We’ve been dismissed as an impossible fringe movement,” Bush said at a news conference shortly before midnight. “But now we are a multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-generational, multi-faith movement united to make change in demanding accountability, in demanding that our police, our government, our country recognize that Black lives do indeed matter.”
Clay did not make a public statement Tuesday night. He congratulated Bush on her victory on Twitter the following day and said he respected the voters’ decision.
Bush positioned herself as the energetic alternative to Clay, who cited a long history of issues important to St. Louis. In an interview with The New York Times, Clay called Bush a “prop” to raise money for the progressive political action committee Justice Democrats, a claim Bush refuted.
Clay has raised $740,525 for his 2020 campaign while Bush collected $562,309, according to the nonpartisan research group Center for Responsive Politics. Nearly 76 percent of contributions to Clay’s campaign came from political action committees, while 61.5 percent of Bush’s came from small donations.
Clay earned an endorsement from U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris of California and the St. Louis Post Dispatch editorial board, which cited his “stable and moderate voice for what’s right in a time of great instability.”
Rep. Cheri Bustos, the Illinois Democrat who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, issued a statement Wednesday morning, calling Lacy Clay “a fierce advocate for the needs of his community” during his long career and congratulating Bush on her victory.
“Cori Bush ran a strong campaign, inspired by the grassroots energy moving through America’s streets, from Ferguson, MO, across our country,” Bustos said. “I look forward to working with Cori in the years to come as our Democratic majority continues to put the issues of working Americans front and center.”
Bush is one of several candidates promoted by the national progressive group Justice Democrats to mount a primary against a member of the Congressional Black Caucus this cycle, an ongoing source of tension within the party.
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Missouri Democrat who like Lacy Clay is a senior member of the Congressional Black Caucus, said Wednesday he would miss his long-time friend. But he also made clear that he was ready to collaborate with Bush.
“Congressman Lacy Clay and his father, Congressman William Clay, Sr. served the greater St Louis area with honor and distinction for more than a half century,” said Cleaver, the only remaining incumbent Democrat in the Missouri delegation. “Their work has benefited countless Missourians. I will miss my friend Lacy in Congress next term and look forward to working with his successor Ms. Bush.”
The Kansas City Star’s Bryan Lowry contributed to this report.
This story was originally published August 4, 2020 at 11:46 PM.
