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Cori Bush campaigned against big money. Her PACs paid her family $25,500. And an $18,000 pass-through transfer doesn't add up.

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ST. LOUIS, Missouri — Former Rep. Cori Bush, seeking to reclaim the St.
Louis congressional seat she lost in 2024, routed money through two
political action committees she controlled to pay salaries to herself
and her husband, according to a 5 On Your Side review of federal
campaign finance records, an arrangement that is most likely legal but
that her campaign has declined to explain. 

The records show that in February 2025, Bush's leadership committee,
Politivist LPAC, sent $18,000 to a second committee she had founded
weeks earlier, Politivist Action PAC. Two days later, the Action PAC
and $11,000 to her husband, Cortney Merritts, over the course of the
year. 

Such payments occupy a gray area that campaign finance watchdogs have
flagged for years. 

Federal rules bar candidates from converting campaign funds to personal
use, but the Federal Election Commission has held that the prohibition
does not extend to leadership PACs or other nonconnected committees, the
type of committees at issue here. The commission has repeatedly urged
Congress to close that gap, without success. 

Bush was also not a declared candidate during the period the payments
were made; she filed her statement of candidacy in October 2025. The
salaries would nonetheless run afoul of the law if they were not
compensation for genuine work at a fair rate, a question the review
could not resolve from the filings alone. 

Two features of the records drew further scrutiny. 

The non-contribution account that paid the salaries is designed to
finance independent expenditures, political advertising made without
coordinating with a campaign. Over 14 months, the account made no
independent expenditures at all, directing its money instead to
salaries, fundraising consultants and software. 

And the $18,000 transfer that preceded the salaries appears as a receipt
on the Action PAC's report but does not appear as a disbursement on
Politivist LPAC's own 2025 filings, including its final termination
report. In other words, the two committees' sworn reports do not
reconcile. 

Anita Manion, a political scientist at the University of Missouri-St.
Louis, said the use of the independent-expenditure account was the
are coming out of an independent-expenditure account… the one thing you
cannot do is coordinate with the campaign. So if payments are coming out
of the independent-expenditure account and going to the candidate and
her significant other, that could be problematic." 

Bush's campaign declined to answer detailed questions about the
payments, the transfer or the absence of independent expenditures. A
spokesman, Ben Cook, said the campaign could not address matters
involving the PAC. 

"In the interest of honoring the firewall, the campaign cannot comment
on behalf of the PAC," he wrote. "I recommend reaching out to the PAC
directly." 

campaign cannot comment on behalf of the PAC." Neither PAC responded to
repeated inquiries. The phone number for one led to a men's clothing
store in Las Vegas. 

The firewall Cook cited restricts coordination between candidates and
outside groups. It does not prevent a candidate from explaining her own
compensation, nor does it apply to a candidate's personal financial
disclosure which Bush, as a 2026 candidate, was required to file by May
15 and, as of this reporting, has not, more than seven weeks past the
deadline. 

The lone statement the campaign provided did not directly address any
the questions asked. It defended payments the campaign made to Merritts
for security work. That money was first reported as security services
and later reclassified as wages. It also became the subject of a federal
investigation that produced no charges. The campaign justified those
payments to her own household by pointing to apparent threats against
Bush. 

"It's not surprising to anyone that the far-right would target a Black
veteran working to keep someone safe," Bush said in the statement.
"Anyone fighting back against the MAGA movement will need to take extra
steps to protect their personal safety." 

The financing scrutiny is not one-sided. Bush's opponent, Rep. Wesley
Bell, was lifted in 2024 by heavy spending from pro-Israel groups, among
the most in any House race in the country, and federal filings show a
substantial share of his money continues to come from donors tied to
AIPAC's network. That money is legal and disclosed. 

"Everyone has to raise money. That's the way it works," Bell said. "I
have supported and been publicly supportive of getting big money out of
politics, but that's the sandbox that we play in." 

is questioned over who funds him, the other over who she pays. 

https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/local/cori-bush-campaigned-against-big-
money-her-pacs-paid-her-family-25500-and-an-18000-pass-through-transfer-d
oesnt-add-up/63-0c7e1fb9-aa23-4870-aea9-4f9fc89ac825 

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Cori Bush campaigned against big money. Her PACs paid her family $25,500. And an $18,000 pass-through transfer doesn't add up. Latasha Life <stupid@nignogs.org> - 2026-07-05 07:15 +0200

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