Wesley Bell

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- U.S. Rep. Wesley Bell won a rematch Tuesday in a Democratic primary against former U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, and Missouri voters rejected a ballot measure that could have made it harder to pass citizen-led amendments in the future.

Bell's primary victory is likely to propel him to reelection in November in the heavily Democratic 1st Congressional District in St. Louis.

Bell, a former St. Louis County prosecutor, was backed by a political group affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The pro-Israeli group also financed his ouster of Bush in the 2024 primary after Bush criticized Israel's response in Gaza to Hamas' attack on Israel in 2023.

Bush had been a part of a progressive group of House members known as the Squad.

The rematch was one of several consequential primaries. In western Missouri, state Sen. Rick Brattin prevailed in a six-way primary for the right to take on longtime Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver in the November general election, in a dramatically reshaped district that is part of President Donald Trump's attempt to retain a slim House majority in the midterms.

Brattin is a Marine veteran and a founding member of the Legislature's conservative Missouri Freedom Caucus.

In northern Missouri, Republicans are choosing a potential successor to retiring Rep. Sam Graves, chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Missouri voters also rejected another measure that would have directed lawmakers to repeal the state's individual income tax while authorizing a state sales tax expansion.

The contest between Bush and Bell tested how much the Democratic Party has shifted over the past two years.

The deep-pocketed American Israel Public Affairs Committee spent millions to help oust Bush in 2024. Bell was again supported by AIPAC.

But public opinions of Israel have since shifted, particularly among Democrats. A recent survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about 58% of Democrats now say the U.S. is "too supportive" of Israelis, up from 45% in an AP-NORC poll from January 2024.

This year's primary also tested the clout of democratic socialists, who traveled from across the country to help campaign for Bush.

Bush and Bell both honed their leadership skills in Ferguson amid the racial unrest that followed the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a police officer in 2014. Bell won election to the Ferguson City Council the next year, then defeated a seven-term St. Louis County prosecutor in the 2018 Democratic primary.

Early Tuesday, Missouri's top election official has rejected a citizens' petition seeking a statewide referendum on new congressional districts backed by Trump.

Supporters of the referendum had submitted hundreds of thousands of petition signatures in a bid to force a November election on a new U.S. House map approved by the Republican-led state Legislature. But Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins asserted Tuesday that the petition is void because congressional redistricting plans cannot be subject to voter referendums.

The number of petition signatures submitted doesn't matter, Hoskins said, because "challenging a congressional map is unconstitutional under Missouri law."

A group backing the referendum effort said it will contest Hoskins' decision in court.

Missouri was the second Republican state, after Texas, to respond to Trump's call last year to redraw congressional districts to the GOP's advantage ahead of the midterms. The revamped map stretches Cleaver's previous Kansas City district eastward into rural central Missouri, giving the new 5th District a Republican tilt.

Information for this article was contributed by David A. Lieb of The Associated Press.