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    Where will abortion be on the ballot in the 2024 US election?

    This November, abortion will be on the ballot in 10 states, including the states that could determine the next president.In the two years since the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, abortion has become the kind of issue that decides elections. Outrage over Roe’s demise led Republicans to flounder in the 2022 midterms, and abortion rights supporters have won every post-Roe abortion-related ballot measure, including in red states such as Ohio, Kentucky and Kansas.This year, most of the ballot measures are seeking to amend states’ constitutions to protect abortion rights up until fetal viability, or about 24 weeks of pregnancy. Because a number of the measures are in states that have outlawed abortion, they could become the first to overturn the post-Roe ban. Others are in states where abortion is legal, but activists say the measures are necessary to cement protections so they can’t be easily overturned if Republicans control the government.These are the states slated to vote on abortion this election day.ArizonaAbortion rights supporters in Arizona, a key battleground state in the presidential election, are vying to pass a measure that would enshrine the right to abortion up until viability in the state constitution. A provider could perform an abortion after viability if the procedure is necessary to protect the life or physical or mental health of a patient.Arizona currently bans abortion past 15 weeks of pregnancy. Earlier this year, the state supreme court reinstated a 19th-century near-total abortion ban, generating nationwide outrage that prompted the state legislature to quickly repeal it in favor of letting the 15-week ban stand.ColoradoColorado’s measure would amend the state constitution to block the state government from denying, impeding or discriminating against individuals’ “right to abortion”. This measure also includes a one-of-a-kind provision to bar Colorado from prohibiting healthcare coverage for abortion – which could very well pass in the deep-blue state.Because Colorado permits abortion throughout pregnancy and neighbors five states with bans – Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona, Utah and Nebraska – the state has become a haven for people fleeing abortion bans, especially those seeking abortions later in pregnancy.FloridaOnce the last stronghold of southern abortion access, Florida in May banned abortion past six weeks of pregnancy, which is before many women know they’re pregnant. Its measure, which needs 60% of the vote to pass, would roll back that ban by adding the right to an abortion up until viability to the state’s constitution. Providers could perform an abortion after viability if one is needed to protect a patient’s health.Florida Republicans’ tactics in the fight against the measure has alarmed voting rights and civil rights groups. Law enforcement officials have investigated voters who signed petitions to get the measure onto the ballot, while a state health agency has created a webpage attacking the amendment.MarylandLegislators, rather than citizens, initiated Maryland’s measure, which would amend the state constitution to confirm individuals’ “right to reproductive freedom, including but not limited to the ability to make and effectuate decisions to prevent, continue, or end the individual’s pregnancy”. Like Colorado, Maryland has become an abortion haven because it permits the procedure throughout pregnancy. It is also relatively close to the deep south, which is blanketed in bans. MissouriAbortion opponents went to court to stop Missouri’s measure from appearing on voters’ ballots, but the state supreme court rejected their arguments and agreed to let voters decide whether the Missouri constitution should guarantee the “fundamental right to reproductive freedom, which is the right to make and carry out decisions about all matters relating to reproductive healthcare, including but not limited to prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, abortion care, miscarriage care, and respectful birthing conditions”.Missouri, which was the first state to ban abortion after Roe fell, only permits the procedure in medical emergencies. If the measure passes, it is expected to roll back that ban and permit abortion until viability.MontanaIn the years since Roe fell, Montana courts and its Republican-dominated legislature have wrestled over abortion restrictions and whether the right to privacy embedded in Montana’s constitution includes the right to abortion. Abortion remains legal until viability in Montana, but the measure would amend the state constitution to explicitly include “a right to make and carry out decisions about one’s own pregnancy, including the right to abortion” up until viability. Providers could perform an abortion after viability to protect a patient’s life or health.NebraskaNebraska, which bans abortion past 12 weeks of pregnancy, is the lone state with two competing ballot measures this November. One of the measures would enshrine the right to abortion up until viability into the state constitution, while the other would enshrine the current ban. If both measures pass, the measure that garners the most votes would take effect.NevadaAlongside Arizona, Nevada is one of the most closely watched states in the presidential election. Its measure would amend the state constitution to protect individuals’ right to abortion up until viability, or after viability in cases where a patient’s health or life may be threatened. Nevada already permits abortion up until 26 weeks of pregnancy.New YorkNew York state legislators added a measure to the ballot to broaden the state’s anti-discrimination laws by adding, among other things, protections against discrimination on the basis of “sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive health”.Although sky-blue New York passed a law protecting reproductive rights in 2019, advocates say this measure could be used to defend abortion rights against future challenges. However, the ballot language before voters will not include the word “abortion”, leading advocates to fear voters will not understand what they are voting on. Democrats pushed to add the word “abortion” to the description of the measure, but a judge rejected the request, ruling that the amendment poses “complex interpretive questions” and its exact impact on abortion rights is unclear.South DakotaSouth Dakota’s measure is less sweeping than other abortion rights measures, because it would only protect the right to abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy. Under this measure, South Dakota could regulate access to abortion “only in ways that are reasonably related to the physical health of the pregnant woman” in the second trimester of pregnancy. In the third trimester, the state could ban abortion except in medical emergencies. Right now, South Dakota only allows abortions in such emergencies.Although this measure will appear on the ballot, there will be a trial over the validity of the signatures that were collected for it. Depending out the outcome of the trial, the measure – and any votes cast for it – could be invalidated. More

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    Police Arrest Man in 1993 Murder of 19-Year-Old Carmen Van Huss

    For more than 30 years, the case had remained unsolved. While questions remain, the police said they had linked a 52-year-old Missouri man to DNA at the crime scene.More than three decades after Carmen Van Huss was found dead in her Indianapolis apartment, a homicide victim at 19, the police said on Tuesday that they had arrested a suspect, a break in a cold case that had long consumed the Van Huss family.The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and the Boone County Sheriff’s Office in Missouri arrested Dana Shepherd, 52, in Columbia, Mo., on Friday in connection with Ms. Van Huss’s death. The authorities charged Mr. Shepherd with murder, felony murder and rape, according to Ryan Mears, the Marion County prosecutor.“Thirty-one years ago she was tragically killed, and today we finally have some answers,” Kendale Adams, the deputy chief of the Indianapolis police criminal investigations division, said at a news conference on Tuesday. Jimmy Van Huss Jr., Ms. Van Huss’s younger brother, thanked law enforcement officials for their efforts to bring the case to a close.“There’s a lot of people that missed Carmen all these years,” Mr. Van Huss said. “She had a lot of family, a lot of friends.”Mr. Van Huss said he was a freshman in high school when his sister was killed. “We were becoming a lot closer as she was taken from us,” he said. “She wasn’t able to experience her college graduation or have a wedding or any life events that she missed out on.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Abortion Rights Advocates Hit the D.N.C.: Free Vasectomies and an Inflatable IUD

    This convention is likely to be a head-on display of a new, unbridled abortion politics.While delegates are in Chicago for next week’s Democratic National Convention, they will engage in the typical pageantry and traditions: They’ll vote for their nominee, pose for photos with elected officials, and show off their state with cool buttons or themed hats.They will also have the option of getting a free vasectomy or a medication abortion just blocks away.A mobile health center run by Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, which serves much of Missouri and part of southern Illinois, plans to park itself near the convention and offer those services early next week to anybody who makes an appointment, delegate or not. (There is so much interest in the vasectomy appointments, I’m told, there is already a waiting list.)It’s a way of showcasing how reproductive health care providers have had to get creative when operating in or near states like Missouri, which borders Illinois and has a near-total abortion ban.But it also underscores the way this convention, more than any other, is going to be a head-on display of a new, unbridled abortion politics.For years, many Democrats believed too much talk about abortion rights might drive away moderate or religious voters. Four years ago, at the Covid-dampened convention of 2020, President Biden did not utter the word abortion in his speech. Neither did Vice President Kamala Harris (although she did refer briefly to racial injustice in “reproductive and maternal health care.”)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Cori Bush loses primary after pro-Israel groups spend millions to oust ‘Squad’ member

    A prominent member of the progressive “Squad” in Congress, Cori Bush, has lost her Democratic primary in St Louis after pro-Israel pressure groups spent millions of dollars to unseat her over criticisms of Israel’s war on Gaza.St Louis prosecutor Wesley Bell defeated Missouri’s first Black female member of Congress with about 51% of the vote. Bush took about 46%.Bell’s win marks a second major victory for the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) after it played a leading role in unseating New York congressman Jamaal Bowman, another progressive Democrat who criticised the scale of Palestinian civilians deaths in Gaza, in a June primary.Aipac pumped $8.5m into the race in Missouri’s first congressional district to support Bell through its campaign funding arm, the United Democracy Project (UDP), after Bush angered some pro-Israel groups as one of the first members of Congress to call for a ceasefire after the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel.Much of the UDP’s money comes from billionaires who fund hardline pro-Israel causes and Republicans in other races, including some who have given to Donald Trump’s campaign.Bush condemned Hamas for the killing of 1,139 people, mostly Israelis, and for abducting hundreds of others in October. But she also infuriated some Jewish and pro-Israel groups by describing Israel’s subsequent attack on Gaza and large scale killing of civilians as “collective punishment against Palestinians” and a war crime.During the campaign, the UDP flooded St Louis with advertising hostile to Bush – although, as in other congressional races targeted by pro-Israel groups, it rarely mentioned the war on Gaza that has claimed nearly 40,000 Palestinian lives, mostly civilians, or her call for a ceasefire.Instead, the campaign focused on Bush’s voting record in Congress, particularly her failure to support Joe Biden’s trillion-dollar infrastructure bill in 2021 and her support for the “defund the police” campaign. Bush struggled to get her message across that the UDP is misrepresenting both situations.The UDP accounted for more than half of all the money spent on the race outside the campaigns themselves.Bell has denied being recruited by pro-Israel groups to run against Bush, but suspicion lingered after he abandoned a challenge for the US Senate and entered the congressional race not long after Jewish organisations in St Louis began to seek a candidate to take on Bush after accusing her of “intentionally fuelling antisemitism”.Bell is expected to win what is one of the safest Democratic congressional seats in November’s general election. More

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    Cori Bush, ‘Squad’ Member and Vocal Critic of Israel, Loses Her Primary

    Representative Cori Bush of Missouri, one of the most outspoken progressives in the House, lost her primary on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, falling to a campaign by powerful pro-Israel political groups intent on ousting a fierce critic of the nation’s war in Gaza.Her opponent, Wesley Bell, a county prosecutor, ran as a progressive and a pragmatist. But he was boosted by more than $8 million in spending from a super PAC affiliated with the country’s largest pro-Israel lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, and other similar entities. That outside money transformed the race into one of the most expensive House primaries in history.The contentious contest came just weeks after Representative Jamaal Bowman of New York, another outspoken progressive and vocal Israel critic, suffered a stinging primary defeat. The same pro-Israel groups that poured $15 million into defeating Mr. Bowman were aiding Mr. Bell, and all eyes were on Ms. Bush to see if she would be the next member of the ultraliberal “squad” to see defeat.Ms. Bush, a former nurse, was first elected in 2020 as part of a wave of progressive victories over establishment figures that elevated forceful Black voices, including Mr. Bowman, during a summer of protests against police brutality. Ms. Bush first made a name for herself in her community in 2014, as a leading Black activist who took to the streets in Ferguson after the killing of Michael Brown, a Black teenager, by a white police officer.The district is solidly Democratic, and Mr. Bell is expected to easily win the general election.But since Ms. Bush’s first election, the political terrain has shifted, in large part because of Israel’s war against Hamas. The country’s retaliation for the deadly massacre on Oct. 7 carried out by Hamas has divided mainstream Democrats from progressives like Ms. Bush, who has vocally condemned Israel’s government over its military campaign and the rising civilian death toll in Gaza.Ms. Bush made herself vulnerable to a serious primary challenge through a string of controversial votes and positions. She was one of two Democrats who voted in January against a resolution to bar members of Hamas and anyone who participated in the attacks against Israel on Oct. 7 from the United States.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Incumbent Andrew Bailey Wins Republican Primary for Missouri A.G.

    The Missouri attorney general, Andrew Bailey, won the primary election on Tuesday to be Republican Party’s candidate for attorney general in the November general election, The Associated Press said.Mr. Bailey, who was appointed by Gov. Mike Parson in 2022, now seeks a full four-year term in a post has been a steppingstone for his predecessors, Eric Schmitt and Josh Hawley, both of whom are sitting U.S. senators.In his 19 months as the state’s attorney general, Mr. Bailey has plunged the office into heated legal and political fights. He has sought to keep prisoners locked up after their exonerations, withheld approval of a ballot initiative to restore abortion rights, and tried to restrict gender-affirming health care for adults and children. He also tried to sue New York State over its criminal prosecution of former President Donald J. Trump and mounted legal challenges to President Biden’s policies on student loan forgiveness, immigration, gun regulation and other issues.Even so, Mr. Bailey spent much of the primary race jockeying with his opponent, Will Scharf, over who was more loyal to Mr. Trump. Mr. Scharf is one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers, appearing before the Supreme Court on his behalf in the presidential immunity case that was decided in Mr. Trump’s favor last month. Mr. Trump endorsed both candidates, saying on his social media platform, Truth Social, “Both have fearlessly confronted the Radical Left’s destructive Lawfare and Weaponization of ‘Justice’ with Great Wisdom, Courage, and Strength!”Mr. Bailey, who Mr. Scharf has accused of being soft on crime, routinely opposed efforts by prisoners to prove their innocence or to leave prison once they had done so. This summer he delayed the release of two exonerated prisoners, Sandra Hemme and Christopher Dunn, and sought unsuccessfully to block a hearing on DNA evidence that pointed to the innocence of a death row prisoner, Marcellus Williams, who is scheduled for execution in September.Mr. Bailey, 43, grew up in Missouri and earned his undergraduate and law degrees at the University of Missouri. Mr. Scharf, 38, is from New York and is a graduate of Princeton and Harvard Law School. A clerkship for a federal judge brought him to Missouri.Neither candidate had previously run for office.Mr. Bailey will face Elad Gross, a Democrat, who ran unopposed in his party’s primary. More

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    US supreme court declines to halt Trump’s sentencing in hush-money case

    The US supreme court on Monday rejected a bid by the state of Missouri to halt Donald Trump’s upcoming sentencing for his conviction in New York on felony charges involving hush money paid to a porn star and left a related gag order until after the 5 November presidential election.The decision by the justices came in response to a lawsuit by the state of Missouri claiming that the case against Trump infringed on the right of voters under the constitution to hear from the Republican presidential nominee as he seeks to regain the White House.The supreme court’s order was unsigned. Conservative justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito indicated they would have heard Missouri’s case.Trump was found guilty in May of falsifying business records to cover up a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she has said she had with Trump. Prosecutors have said the payment was designed to boost his presidential campaign in 2016, when he defeated Hillary Clinton.Trump, the Republican candidate in this year’s election, denies having had sex with Daniels and has vowed to appeal his conviction after his sentencing, scheduled for September.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionMissouri’s Republican attorney general Andrew Bailey filed a 3 July lawsuit against New York state asking the supreme court to pause Trump’s impending sentencing and the gag order placed on him by New York state judge Juan Merchan. More

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    Pro-Israel groups have set sights on unseating this progressive lawmaker. Will they succeed?

    Cori Bush was knocking on doors along Arsenal Street in southern St Louis where voters were not shy of asking hard questions of Missouri’s first Black female member of Congress. But none of them raised the one issue that looms over her re-election race like a spectre.Bush might have been expected to cruise to victory in Tuesday’s Democratic primary for Missouri’s first congressional district in St Louis as she did two years ago. But her path to re-election veered into rough territory after she characterised Israel’s assault on Gaza, following the 7 October Hamas attack, as a “collective punishment” of Palestinians and called for a ceasefire.“I strongly condemn Hamas & their appalling violations of human rights,” she wrote, “but violations of human rights don’t justify more human rights violations in retaliation.”Some Jewish and pro-Israel groups said Bush was denying Israel the right to defend itself and siding with terrorists. A coalition of St Louis Jewish organisations accused her of “intentionally fuelling antisemitism”.View image in fullscreenBush introduced a resolution calling for a ceasefire on 16 October. Within days, the St Louis prosecutor Wesley Bell announced he was dropping out of a race against a Republican for one of Missouri’s seats in the US Senate to challenge Bush for the Democratic nomination in the St Louis congressional district. It was swiftly apparent that Bell, who has firmly supported Israel’s actions, had the support of the US’s major pro-Israel groups which have now poured millions of dollars into trying to make him the Democratic candidate in one of the party’s safest congressional seats.Leading the way is the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac). Its campaign funding arm, the United Democracy Project (UDP), has so far spent $8.5m to defeat Bush, accounting for more than 55% of all spending on the race outside of the campaigns themselves. Much of the UDP’s money comes from billionaires who fund Republicans in other races, including some who have given to Donald Trump’s campaign.In total, outside groups have spent more than $12m to support Bell as opposed to $3m for Bush.The UDP has committed more money in only one other primary contest so far this year: to defeat the New York congressman Jamaal Bowman, another member of the Squad of leftwing Democrats and outspoken critic of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, which has claimed nearly 40,000 Palestinian lives, mostly civilians.UDP advertising has flooded St Louis airwaves and mailboxes but, as in other congressional races targeted by pro-Israel groups, almost none of it mentions the Gaza war or Bush’s call for a ceasefire, which is supported by a majority of Americans. Instead, the ads go after her on unrelated issues. They may be working.‘It’s very fishy’When Peggy Hoelting answered her door on Arsenal street, she recognised Bush and greeted her warmly. But Hoelting swiftly said she had some questions, and began regurgitating criticisms of the congresswoman’s voting record that have been the target of UDP ads that paint Bush as too leftwing, and claim she is voting against the interests of her constituents.Hoelting asked about Bush’s vote against Joe Biden’s trillion-dollar infrastructure bill in 2021, a focus of the UDP messaging blitz. Bush explained that it was a parliamentary manoeuvre to protect parallel legislation, the Build Back Better Act, that included help for families, expanded public healthcare and green energy jobs. She said she knew the infrastructure act was going to pass anyway but the vote has come back to haunt her.After Bush moved up the street, Hoelting told the Guardian her questions were prompted by UDP advertising landing at her door.“We get probably five or six ads in the mail every day. I sit down and look at them all. A lot of them are talking about her voting against Biden’s infrastructure bill. I don’t understand that so I wanted to hear what she had to say,” she said.Hoelting said she wasn’t wholly persuaded by Bush’s explanation but was keeping an open mind. She was unaware of Bush’s position on Gaza but, when it was explained to her, said that would be a reason to vote for her.“Absolutely I want a ceasefire in Gaza,” said Hoelting.View image in fullscreenBush has also been the target of ads for supporting the “defund the police” campaign. The representative said she wants to see money now spent on militarised vehicles and equipment which belong in war zones instead used to fund social workers and other services that would assist the police in dealing with people with mental health and addiction issues.Bush acknowledged that the UDP ads were having an impact.“The one thing that people ask me questions about is the infrastructure vote. There’s a lot of people who say, ‘tell me about the infrastructure bill, I just want to understand what happened’. So then I explain why I voted the way I voted,” she said.Bush said that most voters accept her reasoning but it leaves some undecided. In contrast, she said her position on Gaza almost never gets brought up on the doorstep.“The only time it has come up is when people have said to me, ‘thank you’,” she said.This leaves Bush all the more frustrated by the influence on the campaign of pro-Israel lobby money, much of which comes from billionaires who also donate to Republicans.The UDP’s single largest donor for the 2024 elections so far is Jan Koum, the billionaire founder of WhatsApp who has given $5m. Koum is also a major funder of a group that supports Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and rightwing Zionist organisations.Other major funding has come from a long list of Republican donors including the billionaire hedge fund founders Jonathon Jacobson, Paul Singer and Bernard Marcus, the founder of Home Depot, all of whom are outspoken supporters of Israel.Bush accused the UDP of deceit because none of its advertising makes clear Aipac’s involvement or reference to Israel. She said Wesley Bell, her challenger, was complicit because, although legally his campaign cannot coordinate with the UDP or other outside groups, he has adopted their messaging.“It is confusing people. They’re wondering why Wesley Bell is allowing himself to be bankrolled by Republicans? People are asking, ‘is he a really Democrat?’ Some feel betrayed because he is allowing for Republicans to decide who is going to be their next representative. That benefits Republicans and that is shameful,” she said.Bush has called Bell “a faux-progressive, former Republican campaign operative” because he managed the 2006 congressional campaign of Mark Byrne, a Republican running for the seat Bush now holds. Bell put Byrne’s opposition to abortion to the fore of that ultimately unsuccessful campaign. Bell has played down the association by saying he was helping out a longtime friend.Bell has also denied being a stalking horse for pro-Israel groups. He claimed to have abandoned the race to unseat Missouri’s firebrand Republican Senator, Josh Hawley, because he kept hearing from Democrats that they were unhappy with Bush and wanted him in the US House of Representatives speaking for St Louis.Still, the timing of his switch has fuelled suspicions.Earlier this week, the St Louis television station KDSK revealed a recording of a phone conversation made a year ago between the now-rival candidates in which Bell assured Bush he would not challenge her.View image in fullscreen“I’m telling you on my word, I am not running against you. That is not happening,” he said.But days after the Hamas attack on Israel, Bell dropped out of the race against Hawley and announced he would run against Bush instead.Bell’s campaign manager, Jordan Sanders, told KDSK that when he made the statement, “Bell had no intentions to run against Cori Bush.”“He switched races and decided to run against her after being encouraged by stakeholders at the local, statewide and national level,” he aid.In downtown St Louis, Ernest Bradley, a former student development counsellor at a regional university, said he was not aware of Bush’s position on Gaza or the involvement of hardline pro-Israel groups in the election. But he was unhappy to see one Black candidate challenge another.“I respect Wesley but I think it’s bullshit. I think some money came his way and said to go this other way. I truly do. So when I hear that he’s getting money from the Republicans I wonder what’s really going on,” said Bradley.“I’m going to vote for Bush because it’s very fishy.”With Bush looking vulnerable, others have weighed in. The second largest spender in support of Bell after UDP is Fairshake, a group funded in good part by rightwing billionaires who also back Trump, such as Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz and the Winklevoss twins. Fairshake has spent more than $1m to defeat Bush.View image in fullscreenBush has also come under scrutiny for employing her husband to do security work, which she has defended as legal and not funded by her congressional office. The justice department said it was looking into the issue but a congressional ethics investigation concluded that the payments were legitimate.Bush’s largest backer is Justice Democrats which has spent more than $1.8m in support of her campaign with messages telling voters that Bell is backed by Aipac and Republican money, and accusing him of misusing public funds.Bush also has some important endorsements, including that of the father of Michael Brown, whose death at 18 at the hands of a Ferguson police officer 10 years ago fired up the Black Lives Matter movement.Ferguson is part of the first congressional district, and Bush emerged as an organiser of social justice campaigns there after Brown’s death. Bell was voted on to Ferguson city council on the back of the protests. Later he was elected county prosecutor on a pledge to put the white officer responsible for Brown’s death on trial.But that never happened. Now, Brown’s father, Michael Sr, is appearing in a campaign ad for Bush claiming that Bell failed the family.“I feel like he lied to us. He never brought charges against the killer. He never walked the streets of Ferguson with me. He failed to reform the office. He used my family for power and now, he’s trying to sell out St Louis. He doesn’t care about us,” Brown said in the ad.‘More than half of American Jews support a ceasefire’What little opinion polling there is no clear sign of who will win, but Bush acknowledges she has a fight on her hands – one that is also dividing St Louis’s Jewish population.In early July, a group of St Louis rabbis and cantors wrote to a local newspaper, the STL Jewish Light, describing Bush as “one of Israel’s most unashamed enemies”. The letter called on Jewish voters to turn out in support of Bell and pointed to Bowman’s defeat in New York as the “tested roadmap to follow”. It said that the turnout of Jewish voters, who account for about 3% of the population in the district, but is probably a higher proportion of those who vote, could decide the race.View image in fullscreen“The national pro-Israel community is engaged in this race, but they aren’t casting ballots on August 6. Only our community can do that,” the letter said.A new ostensibly non-partisan group, St Louis Votes, is working to get out the Jewish vote. Although its charitable status precludes it from backing a candidate, its organisers include people who worked to unseat Bowman. The group’s website urges Jews to vote because “antisemitism is on the ballot”.A group called Progressive Jews for St Louis has pushed back against the rabbis’ letter by accusing them of misrepresenting Bush’s record.“What bothers these rabbis is that Cori Bush’s concern extends to Palestinians also. She called for a ceasefire early because she wants to save lives,” the group said in response.Hannah Rosenthal, a member of Progressive Jews for St Louis, has been canvassing for Bush in Jewish neighbourhoods.“The institutional Jewish community, mainstream institutions, are trying to create this message that Cori’s antisemitic because of her calls for a ceasefire. But we’re finding that when you have conversations with people about what Cori actually stands for, her principled moral leadership, then people are swaying more from their undecided positions,” she said.View image in fullscreen“More than half of American Jews support a ceasefire at this time and they understand that criticising the policies and practices of the [Israeli] state are not antisemitic.”Bush said she was perplexed by accusations of antisemitism, given that she has spent her political career speaking up about racism.“I can’t understand why I am wrong for wanting Palestinians to live and have their own self-determination. I want Israelis to live, to be safe, have their freedom. I want the exact same thing for Palestinians. What about that makes me antisemitic?” she said.“What that says to me, though, is there is hatred and it’s not coming from me. There is hatred for people like me for loving Palestinians the same way that I love Israelis and Jewish people in this country. If that is a problem, then they need to check their own heart, they need to check their own issues not mine.”Nonetheless, speaking up on Gaza has exacted a political price. Is it one worth paying?“It’s been challenging and puts me in a place where I have to do a lot more to be able to win. But that does not take precedence. The price has been paid by the 40,000 [Palestinians] that lost their lives, the tens of thousands who are injured. So if I have to piss off some people politically to be able to help save lives, then that’s how it is,“ she said. More