Former Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., is mounting a comeback campaign for Missouri’s 1st Congressional District, but her bid is already attracting controversy over her associations with a self-described Maoist activist.
The activist in question, Christopher Winston, operates under the pseudonym “BlackRedGuard” and has built a significant online presence across multiple platforms promoting his political ideology.
Winston’s content has included videos about “Maoist organizing in DSA,” attacks on leftists who distance themselves from Hamas and Hezbollah, and rhetoric that appeared to condone political violence.
In one video reviewed by Fox News Digital, Winston asked directly, “What’s wrong with throwing molotovs at a police station?” raising immediate questions about the nature of his political activities.
Bush appeared in a recent social media post standing beside Winston, prompting Fox News Digital to reach out to her campaign with specific questions about his role and their relationship.
The campaign did not answer questions about whether Winston holds any formal or informal campaign role, choosing instead to send a link to an unrelated Fox News article about Joy Behar defending democratic socialism.
Winston’s social media history includes a June 2025 post on X stating, “Do not fix America. Unmake it,” as well as posts declaring that the American flag “should always be desecrated.”
A Fox News Digital review of Winston’s X account uncovered several posts praising Bush, including a 2023 message in which he wrote, “Yeah, I’m a Maoist ultra with dreams of riding into power on a tank like Fidel and Che but in the meantime Cori Bush is the best congressperson right now and we need to back her.”
At a Bush campaign event in May, Winston declared, “Cori Bush is the best of STL, and DSA,” and separately urged supporters to “help beat the AIPAC money that stole her seat.”
This is not the first time Bush’s political orbit has drawn scrutiny over associations with hard-left activists and anti-Israel figures, and critics argue the same activist network is once again driving her effort to return to Washington.
