Cori Bush, the Justice Democrats-supported progressive activist that defeated 10-term Rep. William Lacy Clay Jr. in Tuesday’s Democratic primary in Missouri, is at least a year late in disclosing her finances to the public as required by federal law, public records show.
Bush has yet to submit her personal financial disclosure to the House of Representatives for her 2020 campaign, according to the House Office of the Clerk, which maintains a database of financial disclosures of congressional candidates and members of Congress.
A candidate’s failure to file their financial disclosure form is “technically a violation of the Ethics in Government Act,” government affairs lobbyist Craig Holman of the liberal advocacy group Public Citizen told the Daily Caller News Foundation. However, the statute is “rarely enforced unless the violation is egregious and deliberate,” he added.
Candidates such as Bush that don’t disclose their finances open themselves up to “political liability, more so than legal liability,” Holman said.
“[T]he secrecy and legal infraction provides an opponent with plenty of fodder to attack the candidate during the campaign,” Holman said.
Bush’s victory over Clay in Missouri’s solidly Democratic 1st District on Tuesday means she’s all but certain to become the first black woman to represent the state in Congress. She’s a staunch progressive who supports the Green New Deal, Medicare-for-All, and defunding the police.
Candidates for federal office are allowed to pull a salary from their campaigns, but without access to an up-to-date financial disclosure from Bush, it’s unclear whether the amount she’s paying herself is within the bounds set by the FEC.
Of the seven candidates to defeat incumbent members of Congress in the 2020 elections so far, Bush is the only one that has not submitted a financial disclosure to the House Office of the Clerk.
Bush’s campaign did not return multiple requests for comment asking why she hasn’t yet filed a financial disclosure for her 2020 campaign.
Bush was endorsed and supported by Justice Democrats, the outside group that was the driving force behind New York Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s shock victory over former Democratic New York Rep. Joe Crowley in 2018. Ocasio-Cortez served on the board of Justice Democrats in 2018 while it was simultaneously supporting her candidacy, the DCNF previously reported.
“If you didn’t know, now you know: the Squad is here to stay, and it’s growing,” Justice Democrats Executive Director Alexandra Rojas told The New York Times following Bush’s victory.
The so-called “Squad” of progressive freshman congresswomen includes Ocasio-Cortez and Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, each of whom have faced their own allegations of violating campaign finance laws.
