After four years in office, Missouri Congresswoman Cori Bush is serving her final days on Capitol Hill. She delivered a farewell speech Thursday in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The St. Louis Democrat said she will leave office after serving a historic tenure in Congress.
“I stand before you as the first black woman and first nurse to represent Missouri in Congress, the first woman to represent Missouri’s First Congressional District, and the first activist from the movement to save black lives to serve in Congress,” said Bush.
Bush said she will continue to fight for a free world. She said her “radical and unconditional love for humanity is her superpower.”
“I will always fight for the people in our country and world who have the greatest need, for those who are incarcerated, unhoused, unemployed, uninsured, food insecure, struggling to make ends meet, for our children and for our elders, for victims and survivors of violence, for those persecuted and villainized, for every person who has been historically excluded,” said Bush.
Bush, who has experienced homelessness, domestic violence, and rape, said she has represented the struggles that many St. Louis residents endure.
“In Missouri, nearly 6,000 people are living without stable homes, almost a quarter of them unsheltered,” she said. In Missouri, one in three women and one in seven men has experienced sexual violence. And just like I have endured, in Missouri, our state has the third highest rate of domestic violence in the U.S.”
She pleaded with all House members to “do better.”
“You have the power to change the world, so don’t sit on that power. Use it to do good deeds and to save and transform lives. But if you’re not willing to do the hard work to shirk the corporate donors in service of everyday people, then how can you call yourself a representative,” Bush asked Republicans and other House members.
She delivered the farewell, with other outspoken progressive Democrats, known as “The Squad,” there to listen and support her.
“I am so grateful and so honored to have the greatest group of friends within these walls who are anything but silent,” Bush said as she choked up. “Our squad was never silent.”
She leaves office in January after being defeated in August by St. Louis County prosecutor Wesley Bell.
Copyright © 2024 · Missourinet