【圣路易时报讯】原本在今年年初宣布要竞选联邦参议员席位的圣路易郡检察长Wesley Bell，在深思熟虑考量联邦参众议员选情，密苏里州选民需要，以及和社区政治领导协商后，10月30日正式宣布参选密苏里州第一国会选区联邦众议员席位。他表示，在宣布参选联邦席位展开竞选活动后，密苏里州民主党人对他最重要的一句话是：是的，我们在华盛顿需要你，但圣路易更需要你在众议院。
经过这次重要的选举策略改变，目前 Wesley Bell 竞选的对手是同属民主党籍，同为非洲裔黑人，已经连任一届的的现任联邦众议员 Cori Bush。他们将在2024年8月6号党内初选中一决胜负。
Bell 检察长于 2018 年被选为圣路易郡历史上第一位黑人检察官，这是全国各地寻求解决刑事司法系统中种族差异的检察官竞选中取得进步浪潮的一部分。在此之前，他曾担任公设辩护人并担任 Ferguson 市市议员。
Bell 检察长和华人社区关系良好，经常参与华人社区举办的活动，同时曾与华人社区青年学子举行司法会谈和研习，鼓励亚裔青年学习法律参与政治。
在新冠病毒疫情期间，Bell 检察长与亚裔社区联手，打击仇恨亞裔犯罪和種族歧視，联合非裔族群与亚裔族群，协商成立社区融合共同体，共创和谐社区。2021年3月 Bell 检察长并在圣路易时报严正发表 我们和亚美社区站在一起 声明。
2021年11月，2022年2月，Bell 检察长在圣路易时报连续发表 犯罪和起诉的疑虑和事实 和 司法起诉改革中保护社会大众 专文，这是他当选圣路易郡检察长后致力司法起诉改革的心路历程和工作报告，不忘初心的精神令人敬佩。
以下是 Bell 检察长宣布竞选联邦众议员英文新闻稿全文:
Wesley Bell Announces Run For Congress In Missouri’s 1st District
St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney was previously Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate
ST LOUIS, MO — Wesley Bell, who serves as St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney, released the following statement:
“I announced my candidacy for the Democratic nomination to the U.S. Senate earlier this year because I felt that our country was in crisis, and that our future as a democracy was in peril. Josh Hawley has long abandoned our democratic principles, and ignores the needs of Missourians. I saw the parallels to what St. Louis County faced after Ferguson, where the elected leadership was unable and unwilling to meet the challenges before us. Indeed, recently polling showed that I was the Democratic candidate in the best position to take on Josh Hawley in November 2024.
“But over the last several weeks, as I’ve campaigned around the state, I’ve heard one refrain from Democrats above all else: yes, we need you in Washington, but St. Louis needs you in the House of Representatives.
“So, after thoughtful consideration and consultation with respected and committed community and political leaders, I am formally withdrawing as a candidate for the U.S. Senate, and announcing my candidacy for the Democratic nomination to US House of Representatives for Missouri’s First Congressional District.”
About Wesley Bell
Bell is the son of a police officer and county civil servant. His childhood instilled a deep appreciation for public service. Wesley graduated from Hazelwood East public schools, Lindenwood University, and the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law. He became the county’s first Black Prosecuting Attorney in 2018 after defeating a seven-term incumbent.
After graduating from law school, Wesley returned to St. Louis and worked as a public defender, where he saw first-hand the lack of common sense and fairness in the criminal justice system. Wesley worked directly to calm tensions between residents and the police — sometimes physically standing between protestors and police. On the Council, Wesley worked with the Department of Justice to reform Ferguson’s criminal justice system through police and court reform. Improvements included more thorough police training, implementation of officer body cams, pay raises for police, reforms to rules for how police are allowed to use physical force, and an overhaul of the city’s court system.
In 2018, Wesley took on the political establishment and was elected St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney, challenging a longtime incumbent in a campaign that political insiders told him he had no chance of winning. Door by door, phone call by phone call, he proved the establishment wrong – and then got to work as St. Louis County Prosecutor, running the largest prosecuting attorney’s office in the State of Missouri and working to make St. Louis County a safer place.
