In 2006, Wesley Bell attended a $2,000-per-ticket event welcoming President George W. Bush to St Louis, Missouri. At the time, Bell was managing the campaign of Mark Byrne, a conservative Republican running for the MO-01 congressional seat on promises to oppose abortion and gun control. Byrne lost to Democrat Lacy Clay.

In 2014, Bell changed course and marched in the Ferguson protests after the police murder of Michael Brown. Most believe Bell’s political career began with this involvement in the Black Lives Matter movement, and Bell is relying on this reputation in his current campaign against progressive Democratic congresswoman Cori Bush. But his history and his allegiances deserve far more scrutiny.

In 2018, riding the wave of Black Lives Matter, Bell ran for St Louis County Prosecutor as a progressive Democrat. He channeled the intense desire for a change in Missouri’s draconian criminal justice system and won, taking the political establishment by surprise. Bell’s predecessor, Bob McCulloch, had failed to indict Officer Darren Wilson, who killed Michael Brown over petty shoplifting. Bell promised he would bring charges against Wilson. But in August 2020, he changed his mind and decided not to.