Cori Bush’s new claim about ‘billions’ in funding she delivered to district crumbles

First on Fox: Former Rep. Cori Bush, D-Missouri, who just launched a bid to return to her old seat, claimed she brought “billions of dollars” to Missouri’s 1st Congressional District while serving in the U.S. House, but public records reviewed by Fox News Digital tell a different story.

During her failed re-election campaign last year, Bush’s fundraising demands for St. Louis rose from $41 million to $2 billion in less than a month.

“I’m proud to have delivered over $2 billion home, and counting,” Bush said on April 19, 2024.

But less than a month ago, on March 28, 2024, the Bush campaign introduced language for a month-long ad starting April 3, 2024, touting just $41 million in “community project funding since 2021.” Her campaign did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request to explain the 4,778% increase.

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Federal contract and grant records published by the Departments of Defense and Justice and reviewed by Fox News Digital show the majority of that funding came from those agencies.

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While in congress, Bush consistently voted against funding for the National Defense Authorization, which between February 1, 2021 and May 1, 2024, included $48,812,351 in Department of Defense funding for research at Washington University, Saint Louis University, and the Vandeventer Place Research Foundation, all of which are located in St. Louis.

Bush’s claim that she provided more than $2 billion to her district appears to include nearly $49 million in Department of Defense research grants that she voted against.

Through NDAA funding between 2021 and 2024, Missouri’s 1st Congressional District also received at least $6,020,147 from the Department of Justice to increase police department staffing, provide overtime pay or purchase new equipment.

Rep. Cori Bush, D-Missouri, delivers her concession speech during a primary election watch party at Chevre Events on August 6, 2024 in St. Louis, Missouri. (Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images)

The region also benefited from Department of Defense contracts worth $1,286,634,821.76, specifically for the purchase of missiles, military aircraft and drones with Boeing.

Bush was also one of six Democrats who voted against former President Joe Biden’s bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, which Congress passed in 2021 as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).

Much of the government funding that flowed into Bush’s district during her tenure supported programs that ran counter to her progressive agenda.

Bush has a long record of calling for “defunding the police,” and in 2020, he also called for “defunding the Pentagon.”

The former “squad member” announced last week that she is seeking to return to Congress more than a year after losing the Democratic primary to a more moderate challenger.

While campaigning for re-election in May 2024, Bush said she was proud to “deliver over $2 billion” to Missouri’s 1st Congressional District.

Representatives Rashida Tlaib and Cori Bush (L) meet in front of the US Capitol in Washington, DC on November 8, 2023. (Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images)

On Friday, while launching her comeback bid, Bush more ambiguously touted that she had “brought billions of dollars directly into our community.”

“St. Louis deserves a leader built differently,” Bush declared in a video. Shared on social media. “That’s why I’m running to represent Missouri’s 1st District in Congress. We need a fighter who cuts costs, protects our communities, and makes life fairer. I will be that fighter.”

He was a member of the “band”. He was ousted in the Democratic primary In August 2024 by the St. Louis County District Attorney, Rep. Wesley Bell, D-Missouri, a more moderate candidate with the support of pro-Israel groups that have spent millions to oust Bush.

Democratic Majority for Israel Chairman Brian Romick criticized Bush’s inconsistency with fundraising numbers in St. Louis in a statement to Fox News Digital.

“Cori Bush lied to her voters last year when she claimed she brought billions back to the district, and it’s rude that she said that again in her video instead of admitting it. Cori Bush lost because she was an ineffective member of Congress, and lies like this only remind voters of that,” Romick said.

“I ran for Congress to change things for everyday people,” Bush said in his campaign launch video. “I’m running again because St. Louis deserves leadership that doesn’t wait for permission, doesn’t pander to wealthy donors, and doesn’t hide when the going gets tough.”

Democratic Congresswoman Cori Bush from Missouri. (CBSN)

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Bush was first elected to Congress in November 2020, and quickly joined the ranks of the progressive “squad,” including Democratic representatives. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, who were elected in 2018.

The Missouri progressive was re-elected in 2022, but became the second member of the “Squad” to lose her Democratic primary last year after Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., also lost. He lost to a more moderate one Pro-Israel Democrat.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Bush campaign several times for comment.