Rep. Cori Bush, a member of the progressive congressional group known as “The Squad,” has married a member of her campaign’s security detail.
Bush (D-Mo.) got hitched to Cortney Merritts in a private ceremony last weekend in St. Louis, news station KSDK first reported Sunday.
Bush’s chief of staff Abbas Alawiesh confirmed the nuptials in a statement Monday, saying, “With heartfelt congratulations, I am happy to confirm that Congresswoman Cori Bush married the love of her life, Cortney Merritts, this month.”
Bush and Merritts filed for a marriage license on Feb. 11, according to records filed with the St. Louis Recorder of Deeds, and the couple tied the knot a few days later, KSDK said.
The Democratic congresswoman, a vocal proponent of the “defund the police” movement and Black Lives Matter activist, first issued direct payments through her campaign to Merritt for his security services in 2022 after the couple began their relationship, KSDK reported.
Merritts, a US Army veteran, received $62,359 from Bush’s campaign in 2022, KSDK reported, citing campaign finance records. The bulk of the payments were for security services, while $2,359 went to cash reimbursements.
Merritts accompanied Bush to her first inauguration in January 2021, to New York City for her appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” and to Central America as part of a congressional delegation.
The report noted that the payments to Merritts are likely to draw scrutiny from the Congressional Ethics Office and the Federal Election Commission.
While federal regulations ban the use of campaign funds for personal use, some leeway is made for members of Congress to pay family members for performing a “bona fide service.”
“Campaign funds are not to be used to enhance a Member’s lifestyle, or to pay a Member’s personal obligations,” House ethics rules say.
“Members have wide discretion in determining what constitutes a bona fide campaign or political purpose to which campaign funds and resources may be devoted, but Members have no discretion whatsoever to convert campaign funds to personal use,” it says.
Bush’s office on Monday stressed that Merritts is not employed by her congressional office.
”Mr. Merritts, a veteran of the U.S. Army and a security professional, has been Congresswoman Bush’s partner since before her Congressional tenure and is not employed by her Congressional office. Our team has come to know and appreciate Mr. Merritts as a loving and caring Congressional spouse,” Alawiesh said.
Bush reportedly spent nearly $500,000 in campaign funds for private security during the 2020-22 election cycle, according to reports from last fall.
The KSDK report said that amount paid for security-related expenses has now grown to $627,088.
Bush, a member of “The Squad,” along with Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, has said she uses private security because of the threats on her life.
“I’m going to make sure I have security because I know I have had attempts on my life and I have too much work to do,” Bush told CBS News in August 2021, explaining her “defund the police” stand while paying for private security.