This archive report was first published on 3 August 2020.
Cori Bush, a 44-year-old activist from Ferguson, Missouri, has been a vocal advocate for police reform and racial justice since the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown.
Her activism has come at a cost, with Bush facing tear gas, rubber bullets, and other forms of harassment at numerous protests.
When Representative William Lacy Clay, a 10-term Democrat, called Bush 'a prop' for the Justice Democrats, a national progressive group, she fired back, saying, 'I had no title, no name, came out of the Ferguson uprising and people know who I am across the world.'
Bush's candidacy is part of a larger trend of progressive challengers taking on veteran incumbents in the Democratic Party.
From New York City to western Massachusetts, insurgents like Bush are seeking to sustain the momentum gathered in 2018 by candidates like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
For Bush, the stakes are high as she seeks to translate the national protest movement into hard electoral power on the federal level.
