Cori Bush was elected to Missouri’s 1st Congressional District on Tuesday, making her the first Black woman from Missouri ever elected to Congress.
Bush, a nurse and political activist from Florissant, cast her vote Tuesday morning while wearing a face mask with “Breonna Taylor” printed on it.
“It’s unbelievable,” Bush told St. Louis Public Radio after speaking with voters in Clayton. “It’s amazing. But it’s also sad. Because it’s 2020 and I’ll be the first woman in the district and the first Black congresswoman ever for the state. But I wouldn’t change this moment to be able to be here.”
Bush has been a vocal supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement and became active in politics in 2014 after the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
Mike Brown was murdered 2,278 days ago. We took to the streets for more than 400 days in protest. Today, we take this fight for Black Lives from the streets of Ferguson to the halls of Congress. We will get justice.
— Cori Bush (@CoriBush) November 4, 2020
She has been a vocal supporter of Medicare For All, the Green New Deal, $15 federal minimum wage, and criminal justice reform. She has also called for a universal basic income plan as a way to help deal with the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s about the everyday person in St. Louis. It’s about the child that doesn’t have any parents,” Bush said. “It’s about the store clerk that doesn’t have health care. It’s people who are on the regular mindset of people and making sure their needs are met. That thinking. Not who has a title or a big name or all of that. Those days are about to be over.”
Bush’s road to Congress was captured in the Netflix documentary “Knock Down The House.”
In a picture posted to Twitter, Bush posed beneath a painting of Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to the United States Congress, with a finger raised. Her caption was simple: “The First.”
The First. pic.twitter.com/h3o0GxeFLR
— Cori Bush (@CoriBush) November 4, 2020