Cori Bush's campaign to reclaim her House seat just cut nearly $24,000 in checks to a political consulting firm that appears to be run by the same activist whose ties to radical organizations forced Rep. Rashida Tlaib to publicly sever the relationship last year.
Federal Election Commission filings reviewed by Fox News Digital show Bush's campaign made two disbursements to "Unbought Power" on Dec. 5 — one for $12,761 and another for $11,000 — categorized as "Fundraising Consulting." The Florida-based firm appears to still be under the leadership of Palestinian American activist Rasha Mubarak, whose résumé reads like a who's who of organizations that most Americans would prefer their elected officials avoid.
Neither Bush nor Mubarak responded to multiple inquiries from Fox News Digital. The FEC filing lists Unbought Power's address as the same P.O. Box as the Bush campaign itself — a detail that raises its own questions and received no explanation from either party.
Mubarak founded Unbought Power in March 2020. Since then, her public record has compiled into something difficult to explain away as mere progressive advocacy.
A report released this week by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy — the same report that exposed Tlaib's ties to radical groups — highlighted Mubarak's affiliation with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which was an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2009 Holy Land Foundation terror-financing trial. The report also noted her role as a speaker at events held by the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, which promoted the BDS movement. And in September 2023, she served as the press contact for the Alliance for Global Justice, which was investigated for ties to Samidoun — an organization banned in Germany, Canada, and Israel and classified as a terrorist entity in the United States for financing the PFLP.
Weeks before Hamas attacked Israeli civilians, Mubarak accused Israel of "ongoing ethnic cleansing." In May 2021, she posted a string of tweets that captured her worldview with precision:
"These aren't clashes – it's an ongoing occupation. These aren't evictions – they are forced expulsions. This isn't a conflict – it's settler colonialism, it's ethnic cleansing, it's oppression, it's apartheid."
"Say it loud. Say it clear. Palestine will be FREE."
Her domestic positions track just as far from the mainstream. According to Fox News, in April 2021, she tweeted that the United States should "abolish the police." In two separate tweets from July 2020, she called on Orange County, California, to "defund the police." During the riots of summer 2020, she encouraged followers to donate to Dream Defenders' bail fund and shared a now-deleted link to the group's video on how to defund police departments. Dream Defenders' co-founder, Phillip Agnew — a self-described socialist and former Bernie Sanders surrogate — faced backlash of his own for calling Zionism a "racist, exploitative, and exclusionary ideology."
This is the consultant Cori Bush chose.
What makes Bush's decision particularly striking is that this ground has already been scorched. Tlaib's campaign and PAC sent Unbought Power 32 checks totaling $204,000, as Fox News Digital reported in 2022. By the time the full accounting was done, Tlaib had funneled over $400,000 to the firm between 2020 and 2024 for "fundraising consulting." Mubarak also served as treasurer of Tlaib's leadership PAC, Rooted in Community Leadership.
The backlash eventually caught up. In 2024, the Washington Examiner reported that Tlaib's campaign manager sent an automated email announcing the split:
"Our campaign is no longer working with Rasha Mubarak's firm Unbought LLC, so if you need any assistance in fundraising or have questions on how to support congresswoman Tlaib, please know I am here to help."
Even Tlaib, censured by her own colleagues for her rhetoric on Israel, determined that the Mubarak association was no longer tenable. Bush looked at that wreckage and hired her anyway.
Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust, put it plainly:
"Personnel is policy. Hiring a consultant with such a well-documented track record of anti-American and antisemitic ideas tells us everything we need to know about Cori Bush's priorities."
The financial connections between Bush, Tlaib, and Unbought Power don't stop at direct payments. The Squad Victory Fund paid over $85,000 to Unbought Power between 2022 and 2023. During roughly the same period — 2022 to 2024 — the fund transferred almost $60,000 to Bush's campaign. Tlaib's leadership PAC donated almost $8,000 to Bush's past campaigns.
The money moved in loops. Donors gave to Squad-aligned funds. Those funds paid Mubarak's firm for consulting. Those same funds bankrolled Bush's campaigns. Bush now pays Mubarak directly. The ecosystem is small, insular, and ideologically sealed.
Bush's comeback bid also carries baggage that has nothing to do with Mubarak — but everything to do with how she governed.
Last week, Bush posted on social media that transit funding "is essential in meeting the most basic needs" of her constituents. In 2021, she voted against the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which allocated up to $108 billion for public transit investments. She was one of a handful of Squad members who tanked their votes on the bill.
At the time, she insisted she didn't come to Congress to allow her constituents' priorities "to be put on a shelf." Her campaign spokesperson later explained the vote to Fox News Digital:
"Universal pre-K, expanded Medicare, the Child Tax Credit, and lower prescription drug prices were all policies that Missouri's 1st District sent the Congresswoman to DC to win."
"Bush has been clear and consistent on this: her vote was because the infrastructure bill was uncoupled from Build Back Better, which contained those policies. With so much on the line for St. Louis and the nation, the Congresswoman wanted to fight for more, not settle for less."
She wanted to "fight for more" — so she voted against the infrastructure money her district needed, failed to deliver Build Back Better anyway, and then complained publicly that Congress doesn't prioritize public transit funding. The bill she rejected would have been the single largest transit investment her constituents had ever seen.
That's not principled opposition. That's posturing that costs real people real things.
Bush lost her seat in 2024 and delivered her concession speech at a primary watch party in St. Louis. The voters of Missouri's 1st Congressional District made their judgment. Now she wants back in — and her first major financial decision was to hire an activist with affiliations to organizations tied to terror financing, someone whose public statements include calling for the abolition of police and accusing Israel of ethnic cleansing as a matter of routine.
This is not a candidate who learned from defeat. This is a candidate who doubled down on the politics that produced it. The Squad's brand of performative radicalism — vote against the bills that help your district, funnel campaign cash through ideologically aligned consultants, stay silent when the affiliations get uncomfortable — has a track record now. Voters have seen it. They rejected it once.
Bush is betting they'll forget. The FEC filings suggest they shouldn't.
