ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell hasn't slept a lot over the last 24 hours and for good reason.
On Tuesday night, Bell defeated incumbent U.S. Rep. Cori Bush in the Democratic primary for the 1st District Congressional seat, setting a path for Bell to all but claim the seat in November's general election.
The battle between Bell and Bush drew national attention, with Bell’s campaign receiving a big boost from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, whose super political action committee, United Democracy Project, spent $8.5 million to oust Bush.
With the loss to Bell, Bush becomes the second member of "The Squad" to lose her seat in the primaries, joining Jamaal Bowman who lost the Democratic primary to George Latimer six weeks ago.
Bell joined The Chris and Amy Show on KMOX to discuss his primary victory over Bush saying Tuesday's results and being out around voters throughout the day showed him that voters in Missouri's 1st Congressional District wanted to hear solutions rather than repeatedly hear negative attacks on the other candidate.
"Folks in this region cares about the issues. They care about public safety, they care about jobs, they care about education and healthcare," said Bell. "They care about the fact that this region has been dying a slow death and if we are going to turn it around, we got to work together to move this region forward."
"That's what I've done, getting folks to work together in my other positions and that's exactly what you can expect from me as the next congressman."
The 1st Congressional District, which includes all of the City of St. Louis and North St. Louis County, along with pieces of the central corridor such as Clayton and Webster Groves, has been very Democratic heavy, with the last Republican to hold the seat was Samuel W. Arnold from 1943-1949.
With Bell's victory against Bush, it means that he has all but won Bush's seat in Congress in November's election. The victory on Tuesday will likely mean that a successor would need to be found to replace Bell as St. Louis County Prosecutor, a role Bell has held since 2018.
St. Louis County Executive Sam Page will ultimately appoint Bell's successor, but Bell says that he believes his successor should be someone who is a part of his leadership team.
"From the day I've walked into this office as St. Louis County Prosecutor, I started preparing my leadership team as well as the newest attorney to step into leadership roles," said Bell. "There are several folks who are on my leadership team that I think and I know will do a very good job."
Bell hinted that he might have some say in who his successor could be, saying he and Page have had a great working relationship together and they will have conversations in the future about it.
"I'm very proud of the men and women who work in the office and it is a very well run office. I would think it would be best served with someone from our leadership team that was there and can keep the train moving smoothly."
"But that is a conversation that obviously myself and Dr. Page will talk about and I'm here to support him in that decision in any way that I can because we got to get it right and I know that is in the interest of all of us."