Maria Chappelle-Nadal, the county prosecutor for St. Louis, is running for the Democratic nomination in this year’s race for a House seat representing Missouri’s 1st district and currently held by two-term Rep. Cori. Bush (D).
The St. Louis-area district includes the Jana Elementary school that closed in Oct. 2022 after discovery of radioactive contamination from a nearby Manhattan Era site.
Among other places, Chapelle-Nadal announced her run in a Tuesday Facebook post, in which she said she has “more legislative experience” than Bush, who “has created more controversy than progress since we sent her to Washington.”
Bush last week acknowledged that she was under federal investigation for allegedly breaking the law by using campaign funds for a personal security detail that included her husband.
Chapelle-Nadal’s entrance makes for an increasingly crowded primary race, which already includes Bush and Wesley Bell, the St. Louis County prosecuting attorney. The primary election is on Aug. 6, the general election on Nov. 7.
Missouri’s first district is firmly Democratic. Bush won her race in 2022 with almost 70% of the vote and her first election in 2020 with more than 75%. However, she clinched her nomination the first time around more narrowly, beating then-incumbent William Lacy Clay by less than 3%.
