Cori Bush’s New Claim About ‘Billions’ in Funding She Gave to District Collapses

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

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

“I am proud to have delivered over 2 BILLION dollars to my home and counting,” Bush claimed April 19, 2024.

But less than a month before, on March 28, 2024, the Bush campaign submitted the text of an ad, which ran for a month starting April 3, 2024, touting just $41 million in “funding for community projects since 2021.” His campaign did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request to explain the 4,778% increase.

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Former Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., attends a news conference in Washington, DC, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (Allison Robbert/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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

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In Congress, Bush systematically voted against The National Defense authorization funding, 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 located in St. Louis.

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

Through National Defense Authorization 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, pay overtime, or purchase new equipment.

Rep. Cori Bush, Democrat of 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 district also benefited from $1,286,634,821.76 in Department of Defense contracts, primarily for the purchase of missiles, military aircraft and drones with The Boeing Company.

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

Much of the government funding that flowed into Bush’s district during his tenure supported programs at odds with his progressive agenda.

Bush has a long call list to “defund the police,” and in 2020 also called for “defund the Pentagon.”

The former “Squad Member” announced last week that she is preparing her return to Congress more than a year after losing her Democratic primary to a more moderate challenger.

While campaigning for reelection in May 2024, Bush said she was proud “delivered more than $2 billion” for Missouri’s 1st Congressional District.

Representatives Rashida Tlaib and Cori Bush (left) rally in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, November 8, 2023. (Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images)

On Friday, as she launched her comeback bid, Bush touted more ambiguously that she “brought billions of dollars directly to our community.”

“Saint Louis deserves a leader built differently,” Bush said in a video. shared on social networks. “That’s why I’m running to represent Missouri’s 1st District in Congress. We need a fighter who will cut costs, protect our communities and make life fairer. I will be that fighter.”

The member of the “Squad” was ousted in the Democratic primary in August 2024 by St. Louis County District Attorney Rep. Wesley Bell, Democrat of Missouri, who is a more moderate candidate and who had the support of pro-Israel groups that spent millions to unseat Bush.

Israel Democratic Majority Chairman Brian Romick criticized Bush’s inconsistency with his 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 into the district and it’s brazen that instead of admitting it, she repeated it in her launch video. 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 make a difference for everyday people,” Bush said in the campaign launch video. “I’m running again because St. Louis deserves leadership that doesn’t wait for permission, doesn’t answer to wealthy donors, and doesn’t hide when things get tough.”

Cori Bush, Democratic Congresswoman from Missouri. (CBSN)

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

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

Fox News Digital has contacted the Bush campaign several times for comment.