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ST. LOUIS – Cori Bush, the Democratic congressional candidate who defeated Rep. Lacy Clay in the primary, tweeted Tuesday about defunding the Pentagon.

In the tweet, she says, “If you’re having a bad day, just think of all the social services we’re going to fund after we defund the Pentagon.”

Bush is running against Republican Anthony Rogers and Libertarian Alex Furman. Rogers tweeted Bush “might be a little slow” after seeing her tweet.

Gov. Mike Parson’s campaign also posted about Bush as well as his challenger Nicole Galloway, who supports Bush. He said their comments against our military are irresponsible and unacceptable and should be denounced by every elected official.

“Auditor Galloway doesn’t support defunding the Pentagon and Governor Parson knows that. This is another political stunt from the Parson campaign to distract from the fact that Governor Parson, as the leader of the Missouri Republicans, has refused to denounce Republican House candidate Rick Roeber, who stands accused of sexual and physical abuse by his children. Why is Governor Parson silent?” writes Galloway’s campaign spokesperson.

Bush fired back at her critics late Wednesday afternoon, calling the attacks against her ignorant and maintaining position on cutting defense spending.

Rogers said too many jobs would be lost in the St. Louis area if the Pentagon was defunded. 

“I think we should add jobs rather than taking away jobs at this point in St. Louis,” he said.

Rogers said he would have to see specific plans about how Bush would alter spending before commenting on any priority shift and added, “Just the boldness of defunding an industry sounds kind of insane to me.”

The US Department of Defense says in 2018, St. Louis County received $11.9 billion in defense contracts, St. Charles County received $114.5 million, and St. Louis City received $53.5 million.

St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson weighed in on Wednesday with a tweet stating she believes more money should be spent on social services but not at the expense of defunding the Pentagon. 

Arthur Laws, a north St. Louis business owner, agrees with Bush.

“The rich keep getting richer and the poor are getting poorer,” he said. 

St. Louis resident Tracy Morris believes some money currently spent on the military could be better spent in urban neighborhoods. 

“Streets need to be taken care of, vacant houses need to be torn down, and people would like to live in a decent neighborhood,” she said.