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Cori Anika Bush is an American politician, nurse, pastor, and Black Lives Matter activist serving as the U.S. representative for Missouri’s 1st congressional district, since 2021.
The district includes all of the city of St. Louis and most of northern St. Louis County.
She previously ran in the Democratic primary for the district in 2018 and the 2016 U.S. Senate election in Missouri.
She was featured in the 2019 Netflix documentary Knock Down the House, which covered her first primary challenge to Clay.
Bush is a member of The Squad in the House of Representatives.
But while her accomplishments as a politician are well-documented, not much is known about her life off the political scene and the man she’s married to.
Cori Bush husband: Who is Cortney Merritts?
Cori Bush husband, Cortney Merritts is a security specialist and U.S. Army veteran.
Merritts has worked for Bush’s campaign as a hired security guard.
Campaign finance records show the Bush campaign has paid her husband $62,359 in direct payments in 2022.
Most of the payments were listed for security services, while $2,359 of them were for cash reimbursements.
Merritts’ social media posts show he traveled with Bush on her trips to her first inauguration in January 2021, to the Ed Sullivan Theater for her appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” and to Central America on a trip with a Congressional delegation.
After the couple married in February, her office disclosed they had been together more than a year before her committee began paying him in early 2022.
Cori Bush and Cortney Merritts in 2023
Cori Bush and Cortney Merritts got married in February 2023, in a private ceremony in St. Louis.
Marriage records filed with the St. Louis Recorder of Deeds show Bush signed her marriage license in a pact with Cortney Merritts on Feb. 11, a few days before their wedding.
