The Rundown with Rene Knott
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The Rundown with Rene Knott
Cori Bush: Public Service, Purpose & Impact
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Cori Bush joins Rene Knott for an engaging conversation about leadership, public service, and the future of St. Louis.
From grassroots organizing to representing Missouri in Congress, Bush reflects on the experiences that shaped her journey, the lessons learned along the way, and the challenges and opportunities facing our communities today.
Together, they discuss community empowerment, economic development, public policy, civic engagement, and the importance of creating pathways for opportunity and progress.
This candid conversation offers insight into leadership under pressure, serving diverse communities, and navigating the evolving landscape of public life.
Don't miss this thoughtful discussion with one of St. Louis' most recognizable public figures.
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Thank you for joining us for the rundown with Rennie Notting. Well, she is one of the more outspoken people in all of St. Louis, a former activist who made it all the way to Washington, D.C. Of course, she has her supporters, yet at the same time, she has her distractors. Yet all the while, Corey Bush refuses to be silenced, and now she is ready to get back into the game. Believe it or not, it took her a while to find her voice. But now that she's found it, she's ready to be heard once again in the world of politics.
SPEAKER_03Oh, I'm I'm looking forward to our conversation. You and I actually go back to 2020 with the pandemic, the first time we actually added up to any of the chat. I want to start with this one. When people use the term outspoken, how does that hit you?
SPEAKER_00Um, my dad told me years ago when I was a small child, he said a closed mouth won't get fed. Um he said to me, if people don't know what you need, then how will your need get met? And, you know, you are a leader. My dad, every single morning before I went to school, me and my siblings, he would sit us down at the kitchen table and do this same thing. Responsibility, responsibility. You are a leader and not a follower, but a good leader knows how to follow. And that's how I was raised.
SPEAKER_03How long did it take for that to actually sink in and you truly believe it?
SPEAKER_00I was well into my twenties. Um, yeah, I was um because as a teenager, you know, I just wanted to, I went through a lot as a teenager. Let me just say that. I went to a school where I was, you know, just really harshly discriminated against and singled out, and it was just, it was violent to my um, it was violent to my heart as a as a 14-year-old um child. And so that took me down a trajectory that I, you know, that I don't think any child should ever have to go through. But um, so it took me a while to get my to find my voice again because I I thought I had a voice up until that point. So I was well into my 20s when I realized that, hey girl, like, you know, you were raised, you know, you raised, you were raised in a house of, yeah, of black excellence. You were raised in a house to, you know, my dad um and my mom too, but we like we didn't get to sit up and watch like frivolous TV shows or things like that. If if my dad was at home, we were watching Eyes on the Prize on the Loop. We were watching Roots, we were watching, you know, um, archives of the civil rights movement. All of our books were about that, the pictures on the wall in the home. I remember I wanted a strawberry shortcake poster in my in my room. My dad was like, no, no, no. He said, You need to understand that your skin color is beautiful and you need to keep seeing that represented. So we put we'll that's what we'll put on the wall. And he wasn't like, you know, being disc you know, discriminated against anyone else. He just wanted me to understand that you be great. And so I like that that was growing up. And now like I I'm able to see how just those little things, how that was able to blossom into who I am today.
SPEAKER_03What was it like the first time you used your voice? The first time you stood up and let people hear it.
SPEAKER_00Wow. Um Wow, I think so. When I was in high school, uh so before high school, I was I think I was like the the pres the principal's pet. So let me just you know, I was the one that was called to do everything, you know. Um so but I still really didn't have a voice. I was just leadership was showing up.
SPEAKER_05Okay.
SPEAKER_00But when I went to high school and I had the opportunity to write, and um I went to Carnegie College Prep. Okay. Yeah. Rita Critter. And um I yeah, I love Ritter. Um and uh I I I took a class and we were able to get credit um at Umsel, college credit at UMSL. And I remember I was writing and it just started to come out of me on paper. Okay, you know, and I won awards, and that was when my I I started to like realize that I had a voice, but it wasn't spoken, it was written. Okay. And then after that, um, I realized that um it was once I got a little older and I went through some things. Um, and actually after I gave my life to the Lord, that's when I went from writing it to speaking it.
SPEAKER_03Did it change where it was coming from, or was it always coming from the heart?
SPEAKER_00It was always coming from the heart, but it was a lot in my head. You know, as a, you know, when I was writing, it was, you know, because I was really trying to be an academic. So it was what I was reading, what I was learning, and then how that impacted my heart and what I so what I believed. Um later, after I went through a lot of turmoil and a lot of struggles, you know, 18, 19, 20, um, uh to my early 20s, when after I gave my life to the Lord and I was just sitting under teaching, and I was connecting that to what my dad taught me and what um different leaders at Cardinal Ritter taught me and others, then I realized you're stronger. Like look at what you came through and so use that. But what the thing that really made me start to use my voice was one day I told a story about some abuse that I had endured through domestic violence through uh um through intimate uh intimate uh partner relationship. And the other young girls around me were like, that happened to me. Like they didn't want to speak up, they whispered it. That happened to me, and how and they were asking me, how did I get through that? And that's when I realized the power of storytelling, truth telling, but also of people knowing, speaking up, because then I was able I started a I started a young adult ministry with those with those young women um and was able to carry it through um for the next few years.
SPEAKER_05Okay.
SPEAKER_03I'm gonna go to break real quick and we'll come back. There's there's a lot to unwrap with you and a lot that I want people to know. We're gonna step aside for just a sec. We'll be back with more of Corey Bush.
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SPEAKER_03I'm back with Corey Bush with more of our conversation, and we're talking about you finding your voice. And your voice is one that doesn't necessarily agree with a lot of people. When people say, Oh, Corey Bush is a radical, how do you respond?
SPEAKER_00If it's radical to just care that every single person has dignity and respect, that humanity is real for people, if that's radical, if it's radical that I care that people have clean water and clean air, that they aren't brutalized or pushed aside, marginalized, historically excluded, then if that's radical, then the problem isn't me, the problem is you. Because for me, I know what it's like to feel like policy is the reason why I walk through things that are like just um people who didn't understand how to connect with people who wrote policy, um, that it caused harm. Um I worked low wage for many, many years um in a profession. I worked in childcare. Uh, but I I couldn't afford to send my own children to the same day, the same preschool that I worked for for 10 years. Um I didn't have health insurance, but I loved my job, but they couldn't offer us health insurance. I um so I worked low wage at that company for a long time. I um I was a victim of sexual assault and violence. I was um I lived in my car with my two babies, hoping that in the middle of the night that they didn't die because it would get the temperature would dip so low at night. And I was working full time, you know, and so when I when people call me radical, me wanting to save lives is first because I needed someone to help save my at a at a point in time. And so if it's radical to make that happen, I am not the problem. How people get into that, those situations are the problem. People feeling like those um uh people that are going through those situations like I was that we weren't worthy, um, that's the problem.
SPEAKER_03How did you go about keeping your self-worth? How did you go about keeping your forward-thinking mind when you're homeless, when you're worried about feeding your kids and keeping your kids warm or cool in the summertime? How did you keep yourself, I guess your eyes on the prize?
SPEAKER_00Well, first of all, n most people or I probably probably can say nobody thinks that they will ever end up unhoused or homeless. And I would have never guessed it for myself either. And um when it when I looked up and found myself in that situation, I just I believe that this is today. Tomorrow things are gonna work out. Something's gonna change tomorrow. So it was always tomorrow. I had hope in tomorrow, even though today was dangerous.
SPEAKER_05Yes.
SPEAKER_00And it just took tomorrow a long time to get there. It took months for tomorrow to come. But I believed that that that was not for me. I believed that I wasn't in that situation because Corey was bad or because I didn't do something right. I was in that situation because I just couldn't make ends meet and I couldn't figure out how to get out of it. And I kept looking at my kids. If nothing else, I had two babies. Uh, my one baby was my my youngest was like two months old. And then my oldest was um 13 or 14 months, something like that. Um, and so I was like, I had to live for the both of them, and I had to do better for the both of them. And so that was my whole plus. I when I say I prayed, that was when I got closer to the Lord. I pray. I was like, this can't be how life is. But when I think back on that, that's something that nobody can take away from me is the experience of that moment of me getting off work, you know, picking my kids up, knowing we're going to a car, that our our belongings, everything we own, were in trash bags in the back of in the back of uh back of the car, and that uh we had to figure out what dinner looked like, that I had to go into a McDonald's bathroom to mix my daughter's formula, that I would go to someone's house to iron clothes for a few days and lay them out in the car so that the people on my job wouldn't know that I was sleeping in a car. Um but when I think back on that, now I can advocate deeper, I can go harder, I can speak directly to it because I've been there. And so those challenges, as hard as they were at that time, I kept my focus being that this is not for me, you know, that something has to come out of this, and it has.
SPEAKER_03That's the pastor in you coming out with the with a with the way you get the cadence going there. You take all of this and you go to Washington, DC. But I want to go back to election night. Because that next morning, you're you're on the street with Casey Nolan doing a live interview for us, and I'm going, Casey, did she just come out of nowhere? Casey's like, yeah. I mean, how I wouldn't say surprise because obviously you're going there to win, but how life-changing was that one moment when you go, oh, this really happened.
SPEAKER_00It was immediate. So Casey, Casey said, Hey, I need you on at 6 a.m. I'm like, we're just leaving the party at 2 a.m.
SPEAKER_05We're back here at 6 a.m.
SPEAKER_00Um, so that was the change. It was like immediately I was thrust into now this, now you are going to Congress, most likely. So all of this, my phone, so my phone the night as soon as it was my the race was called, my phone was ringing off the hook with members of Congress. Yeah. And I remember thinking, did my phone number go out on like a listserv or something? Like, where did all these members get my phone number from? Um, and so my phone just kept ringing with all of these people, you know, um, that I watched on television or that I've read about, you know, tell, you know, that now they wanted to know, Corey, what do you think about this? Can you help me with this? Well, you get on my bill. I'm like, I haven't even met the voice yet. The voice was starting. Yeah, it was it was already there. The one thing that I will say was great about it. So as my life changed so fast, the one thing that I was so glad about was that I didn't have to tell those members of Congress or or anyone else who Corey was going to be walking in those doors. Because of the work that we had done right here in St. Louis, because of all the advocacy, because of just even how I ran over and over and over again and didn't stop, people knew who Corey was. They knew I was gonna come in and talk about, you know, um uh saving lives. They knew I was gonna come in and talk about police accountability and and and homelessness and just all of they knew that I was gonna talk about poverty. And so there was no, you know, we don't do that here. You know, it was accepted. So for me, but now now I'm getting calls to be on the cover of magazines and I'm and and people want people are throwing mics in my face differently than when it was in Ferguson, but throwing mics in my face because it's like you now we now your voice is valid to us. And that was such a change.
SPEAKER_03But when you walk into DC, you're walking into a whole different world altogether. Yes. Not just the fact that there's this bigger city, but the politics and the clubs, so to speak. Were you accepted from day one, or did you have to earn your status there?
SPEAKER_00Actually, I was accepted from day one. Um and that was something that was said to me on those conversations right after I won those calls that I was uh receiving. Most of the calls were, Corey, I might not have supported you before, but I support you now. You're a part of the team. Or I did support you. I just couldn't be public about it. And so now you're on, you know, and so it was immediate. Um, I even had someone say, I was so upset that you were running. I just did not like that you were running. Um, and but now I understand. And that person took me under their wing and ended up being one of the greatest mentors I have ever had.
SPEAKER_03Can you say their name?
SPEAKER_00That was um uh I don't know if I want to say her name.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Don't say that. Don't say that. I don't get anybody in trouble. Everybody stay low-key. Um now you're back here in St. Louis looking to go back to Washington, D.C. Do you feel like you have unfinished business?
SPEAKER_00I have so much unfinished business. It was so abrupt, you know, uh me leaving. And I was on the cusp of so much. I was, you know, pushing doors open, but also holding the door open for others like me to come in and for that to just come to a screeching halt. There's so much, so much left on the table. I had um people from different organizations, national and local organizations, say to me, you know, you are our champion in this, in this area, in this issue. Now what? You know, so we we need to see you back to get back to the work. And um, and I'm I'm ready, you know. I love well, one thing is, you know, I'm better. Okay, I'm stronger, I'm wiser, you know, and so that's what Congress will get when I go back. This is Corey 2.0. Corey knows more, Corey is look, and I've and I've had some rest.
SPEAKER_03There you go. There you go. Uh one of the things you and I talked about was the first time that I ever had an opportunity to interview you. It goes back to 2020. During the pandemic, during that time period, you were battling COVID at the time. That's something that you also want to speak about when you get there, is because there's a lot of folks like yourself dealing with the long-term effects of COVID. Where are you now with all of that as far as what you're looking to push for?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, so you know, I know that there is um there is a lot of advocacy around research for long COVID, and there are providers or physicians who are speaking out. And um, but we need more because long COVID is real. There are people in our community right here in St. Louis that have been very outspoken to help try to push the envelope um as it relates to long COVID and the effects of it, how different people experience it different ways. I know for me, um, be you know, the impact that COVID had on my lungs as an asthmatic, uh it was it was devastating each time I had COVID. But the effects of it, the long-term effects of it, that um, you know, sometimes just not being able to come like figure the right word to say, you know, in the moment, or um just times when I just, you know, I feel like um like my breathing would be better, or um like would I want to extra even let me just say this even exercising, people will, you know, I'll find a personal trainer and I'm like, can you can you really train someone that is suffering from long COVID and that is an asthmatic? Oh yes, I've done this. I've and then as soon as we get started, oh lung capacity. Yeah, it's a real thing. You know, and so being able to and but there are people who didn't have asthma who are suffering from long COVID in different ways, headaches. Right. And um, you know, and just and and debilitating fatigue. So there is so much there that needs to be studied, and I want to help help us to do that.
SPEAKER_03You got a lot to do. You got a lot to do. You've had a lot think about what you what you want to do. Um one of the things that I love doing on the show is understanding people's passion. And I think I I feel that from you with your passion. But there are kids, adults, who are looking at you now saying, How do I get to be where you are? What is the message that you would want to give to them as guiding lights to say, hey, you could get through this tunnel and get to the other side?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So first is every day is a new. Every single day, take it as a new day. So I might not have I I didn't meet the mark yesterday, but tomorrow I can reinvent myself to be able to get there. And your circumstance does not dictate your growth. It does not dictate where you can go. And when I was 14 and I went through that situation, um, I was showing up to school and the N-word was all over my locker. I was being uh targeted and singled out, and um, and I just didn't know how to handle that day after day after day. I was an A student, and then all of a sudden I was being treated like um like just treated like people didn't want me at this new school that I had started. And um I allowed that to make me shrink. What I said, because I was being attacked, what they were attacking me for was being smart. I walked into that school as the number one student, the top student in that clas in that freshman class, and it was not accepted. So I decided, well, since they're attacking me for being smart, don't show anyone you're smart, pull back. Don't do that. So to students, to to youth who are, you know, be who you are and love who you are, grow who you are. If your thing is mathematics, don't care about what somebody else is saying, go for it, go for that thing. If your thing is caring about puppies, I don't care. You want to advocate for puppies, go for that thing because each one of us has a gift, each each one of us has a purpose. And if you're too busy looking at what somebody else thinks about yours or you're too busy trying to fit into somebody else's, you miss what you are supposed to bring to the earth and what the earth can give back to you. So push harder and let if it's a test that you're walking through, if it hurts, if it's tough, if it's uncomfortable, just let that be the test of the testimony because you'll get to the other side. All you gotta do is wake up the next day. Get to the other side.
SPEAKER_03The test of the testimony. I'm stealing that one. Ooh, it's the t-shirt day to start wearing that. I I really appreciate you being your authentic self. It is so difficult for people to be, and I think we all started to see it back during the Ferguson uh era. And moving forward, I I hope that your voice is never silenced. I hope your voice grows. Um, be it in Congress, be it on our streets, be it just a guiding light for young people out there who are also struggling, who don't know what tomorrow brings. Uh, it's good to have somebody in front of them to say, You could do this too.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yes, and do it, do it better than me. Do it faster than me. You know, that's what I need. When when because I have youth who will come up to me and say, How can I be like you? And I tell them, I don't want you to, I want you to be better. You know, I don't want you to go through what I was 40 when I really started to pull it together. I want you to do it now. And if I can give you the tools, if I can hold your hand, then let's do it.
SPEAKER_03What did dad say all the time? Oh, look, responsibility leadership. In many ways, we're all responsible for where we're going in life. That's right.
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