I’m writing something a little more personal for the introduction here. Bear with me please, and I’ll get to the point. There are two events so far in my life where I know exactly where I was and what I was doing when they happened. Of course, I am talking about 9/11 and January 6th.
On 9/11, I was in an 8th-grade social studies classroom. The teacher received a phone call and immediately turned on the television. He commented that this was history in the making and that you will remember this day for the rest of your life. He was right. It also was the event that led me to consider myself a Republican for most of my youth.
On January 6th, I was in bed still trying to recover from a serious COVID infection. My mother called me and said to turn on the television because you won’t believe what is happening. I trudged my way to the couch and watched in horror as the US Capitol was ransacked by the insurrectionists. It is what cemented my status as a yellow-dog Democrat.
We have someone in Congress who attended the “Stop the Steal” rally and even breached the perimeter of the Capitol building on that day. His name is Rep. Derrick Van Orden and he represents Wisconsin’s 3rd district. This is a Trump-leaning swing seat which we practically gave up on last cycle. We won’t repeat that mistake in 2024.
It is our patriotic duty to rid Congress of as many insurrectionists as possible. Sadly, most of them reside in safely Republican districts but that isn’t the case for Rep. Derrick Van Orden. Rebecca Cooke is our challenger in 2024 and the DCCC is fully backing her run.
We need to do whatever we can on this 9/11 to defend our nation from enemies - foreign and DOMESTIC. The question for Daily Kos is whether you can dig deep and commit to a higher level of support for Rebecca Cooke.
Like reading election-themed articles? I am continuing a massive series of them each Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday morning! Make sure to follow #SaveTheMajority and the group Save the Majority so you don’t miss important races down the ballot!
Rep. Derrick Van Orden is part of what I am calling the #MAGADozen. These Republicans in GOP-leaning swing districts are full-throated MAGA supporters and can be beaten. Rebecca Cooke is one of the challengers I am fundraising for.
Rebecca Cooke for Wisconsin-3
Campaign Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | DONATE
What’s the Big Idea?
THIS RACE IS LIKELY REPUBLICAN, with an R+4 PVI
County results for WI-03 in 2022.
The 3rd district of Wisconsin has covered the southwestern corner of the state since the 1860s. It has obviously since grown to cover more of the western and even central parts of Wisconsin as districts were shed due to redistricting changes. Most of the time, a Republican would represent this seat, but many of them were liberal or moderate Republicans. It is only recently that Democratic candidates were competitive in this seat.
At the turn of the millennium, this seat narrowly went for both Gore and Kerry. At the same time, Rep. Ron Kind (who first won in 1996) would cruise to easy elections. Obama increased the winning margin to 59-39 in 2008, which are levels that would indicate the seat is safely Democratic. That proved not to be the case, as Kind had a real rough 2010 race in which he only won 50-46. It foreshadowed what was to come later on.
The district would shift heavily to the right when Trump rose to power. Kind still went virtually unchallenged in 2016, and his race in 2018 was a walk in the park. 2020 was a different story, and that race turned out to be the closest of his career. He barely held on 51.3%-48.6% against Derrick Van Orden as Trump was winning the district by 51.5% to 46.8%.
Rep. Ron Kind decided to retire in 2022 which put this district at the top of the races the GOP expected to flip. State Sen. Brad Pfaff ran an underfunded campaign in an attempt to hold off Derrick Van Orden. All of the prognosticators didn’t expect this to be a close race — rating it “Likely Republican”. Pfaff held Van Orden to a 51.8%-48.1% win which shows that the district is still competitive. There was a definite drop-off in voting when comparing 2020 and 2022. 390k voters cast ballots in 2020 while only 318k did so in 2022.
Here’s where this 3rd district race will be won.
- La Crosse: This small city is one of the Democratic anchors of the district, and it is critical that Cooke outperform MVP Harris in this county because simply matching the top of the ticket isn’t enough. Cooke may have residual name recognition from her two primary runs but she will need to make a good impression down in this critical area.
- Eau Claire: This small city is in the northern part of the district, and it is equally important to the cause as La Crosse. This is the home base of Cooke, and she will need to run up the score in order to win. Biden got about 55% of the vote in the county, which wasn’t enough to carry the district in 2020. Cooke will need to do better than that.
- Stevens Point: This small city is in the weird eastern spur jutting into central Wisconsin. Biden very narrowly carried the county this city is in 50-48, and Cooke will have to do better. Her primary opponent (Katrina Shankland) was from this area so hopefully there aren’t any hard feelings.
Here’s where we need to keep the margins down, or we lose.
- Driftless Area: This area in southwestern Wisconsin is the one of the swing areas of the district. Trump carried it, but so did Democratic Gov. Evers and GOP Sen. Ron Johnson. It is also where Van Orden is from, so there may be an overperformance for him here. Cooke will need to get as close to 50-50 as possible in these counties.
- Surrounding Eau Claire: The northern part is the district is GOP-leaning, but only marginally so. Trump carried the area by a larger margin than is typical of the Republicans which may be a factor. Cooke will have to contest the small towns like Menominee and do better in farm country than MVP Harris in order to flip this seat.
- Between La Crosse and Stevens Point: There are a few small counties and pieces of counties that attach Stevens Point to the rest of the district. While Obama did carry them way back in 2008, these areas now vote overwhelmingly for Republicans. Cooke needs to hope that turnout in these small areas doesn’t tip the scales against her.
Rebecca Cooke: A Potential Rural Champion
Rebecca Cooke reminds me of VP candidate and Gov. Tim Walz. She would do well to win here.
Rebecca Cooke was born in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. She grew up on the dairy farm run by her parents. She participated in 4-H and other farm-related pursuits in her youth. She would go on to graduate from St. Thomas University - using Pell Grants, scholarships, and income from waiting tables to pay for an education.
Cooke would open a small business called Red’s Mercantile upon returning to Eau Claire. In 2016, she expanded the business to the Red Letter Grant which supports women entrepreneurs in the region. Gov. Tony Evers made her the youngest ever appointee to the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation because of her success at running a small business.
Rebecca Cooke has run for this district before. She finished second to State Sen. Brad Pfaff in the 2022 Democratic primary election for this district. It was her first race and it was clear she was a political newcomer. She learned some valuable lessons which she put to good use in the contested primary this time. State Rep. Katrina Shankland was a formidable rival, but Cooke bested her 50%-42% by cultivating a slightly more moderate profile. She was endorsed by both the New Democratic Coalition and the Blue Dogs. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez was particularly effusive in her praise for Cooke.
How do local Democratic officials see Rebecca Cooke? She was viewed very positively, which led to his endorsement of the challenger to Van Orden:
We both enthusiastically endorsed her. Why? Two main reasons.
The first and most important reason, because everything else is dependent on getting elected, was that we both think she can beat Derrick Van Orden, and that’s going to be a heavy lift. Not only is he an incumbent, he’s very good at the retail politics of constituent services, and that matters. That said, what I see in Rebecca is a smart woman who is willing to both throw and take punches politically. She’s been running for this seat continuously for two cycles and it’s clear that she’s learned an enormous amount from her previous run in terms of what it will take to win. She also has a solid war chest and a great biography that fits the district well. One of my more vocally Republican County Board members signed her running papers and that tells me a lot about how well she can convince the people who are willing to be convinced.
Second, and very nearly as important to me, was her governing philosophy. She’s a pragmatist who understands that government is about solving people's problems and taking the best deal you can get. She actually sounds a lot like Governor Walz on that front. She knows what will fly in this very purple district and speaks the language, having grown up as the child of dairy farmers. She’s also very much in touch with the struggles of real working people. She was taking extra shifts waitressing at the time we were talking with her so she could save up enough to be able to campaign full time after the primaries.
She knows how to work hard. She understands what it's going to take to win. She is charismatic and tough. And, in an election that is going to be all about handing the torch to the next generation, her relative youth and optimism are going to play very well against Derrick Van Orden’s character and record.
Issues pertaining to agriculture are obviously at the forefront of any campaign in a more rural district. Cooke plans on streamlining the Farm Bill as she argues it has grown too complicated to pass under normal order. She will also focus more on fighting corporate farming consolidation and for small and midsized farmers. Finally, she would attempt to fix supply chain problems in processing agricultural products and find new markets for exports. This also includes expanding access to rural broadband so that communities can join the 21st Century.
Until Republicans gutted it, Wisconsin was known for its education system - especially for the small universities scattered across the state. Cooke would work to increase federal funding for early education. She’d back incentives for higher education to solve the teacher shortage. She would work on changing the Title I funding formula so the districts most in need get the most, and give grants for work study and technical education to create alternate pathways to finding good-paying jobs.
Cooke may portray herself as moderate politically, but she definitely sounds some progressive notes on defending democracy, abortion rights, and corporate consolidation. Before you write her off as another troublesome Blue Dog, read the Priorities page on her website!
Rep. Derrick Van Orden: Unstable and Angry
He was known for attending 1/6. Now, Van Orden is known for lashing out at children and instability.
Derrick Van Orden was born in 1969 in Minnesota. He joined the Navy in 1988 at 18 years old. His orders were to attend Navy SEAL training in 1992. He specialized in Basic Underwater Demolition (BUD/S) and was assigned to SEAL Team FOUR. He further sought advanced SEAL training and is entitled to wear the Special Warfare insignia. Van Orden served for 26 years and retired as a Senior Chief in 2014.
The Van Orden campaign will argue that his attendance on January 6th at the Capitol building was vetted by the voters in 2022 and was not found disqualifying in the 3rd district. It is a hard point to argue against because it was central to the Brad Pfaff campaign in 2022. He still claims “there was a tremendous amount of voter fraud in [the 2020] election.” He hasn’t changed his ways since January 6th!
Van Orden has a habit of bursting out in anger - even at children. He first burst out at a teenage page back at home for erecting a book display with LGBTQ+ literature included. Next, he berated Senate pages for taking photos in the US Capitol building and issued a non-apology for it. Further outbursts happened at an intelligence briefing on the Israel-Hamas war and at the State of the Union. It is clear that Van Orden is an angry and unstable individual who has no place in Congress.
Van Orden also goes to extremes on abortion. He compared abortion to “genocide” and believes life begins at conception. That means he is against birth control and IVF as well. He’s shown his dedication to the anti-abortion cause while voting in Congress - including targeting doctors who perform abortions, allowing funds for “crisis pregnancy centers” to spread their misinformation, and to block reproductive health options for members of the armed services.
Another issue where Van Orden is terrible is gun safety. He is a zealot when it comes to the 2nd amendment and is in the pocket of the NRA. He even got in trouble at the Eastern Iowa Airport for having a loaded gun at a security checkpoint. He claimed it was an honest mistake and completed his required penalty for doing so.
Rep. Derrick Van Orden doesn’t deserve to be in Congress because he cannot handle his own temper. Combined with his terrible stances on key issues he is a menace that needs to be defeated.
How Can You Help?
Rebecca Cooke went through a bruising primary election within the last month. She had to spend most of the $2M she has raised so far in order to win that primary election. The patriotic thing to do today would be to give her campaign a contribution - especially since Rep. Derrick Van Orden has $2.4M in cash-on-hand right now. Hopefully being added to Red to Blue will jumpstart Rebecca Cooke!
The GOP and their allies have not yet booked any ad reservations for this district. That of course may change in the future but for now they must feel confident that Van Orden is ahead. The DCCC and their allies are spending BIG on this race. They’ve reserved a combined $3.9M in the Madison, Wausau, and La Crosse media markets. Money directed at the Madison market could be used for Wisconsin’s 1st district as well, but Wausau and La Crosse solely cover the 3rd district.
This is such a large district that there are a LOT of opportunities to volunteer. Cooke seems to be outsourcing her canvassing and phone banking to the Wisconsin Dems (a wise choice) because I cannot find a link to volunteer for her on either Mobilize or on her website.
La Crosse has canvassing every Sunday and Monday and a phone banking operation this weekend. Eau Claire has canvassing on a few Saturdays, and phone banking to help get more volunteers also. Stevens Point has canvassing this weekend and phone banking every Wednesday. Platteville also has some canvassing happening this weekend. Menomonie cannot be forgotten as canvassing starts this weekend as well. Pierce County and Wood County also start canvassing soon!
Today is a day steeped in patriotism. It doesn’t get more patriotic than supporting Rebecca Cooke in her fight against January 6th attendee Rep. Derrick Van Orden. I see the potential here for her to have an amazing political career if she can get over this first hump of winning a tough district.
Rep. Derrick Van Orden will not be easy to dislodge no matter what polling says. He has the benefit of incumbency now and of course the lean of the district favors him with Trump on the ballot. The Downballot rates this as the 24th most vulnerable seat held by the GOP. This is in longshot territory, which is why ratings aggregators and I both rate it as “Likely Republican”.
The question for Daily Kos readers is whether or not you can do something today to help rid Congress of another January 6th insurrectionist.
Rebecca Cooke for Wisconsin-3
Campaign Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | DONATE
Here is the Defeat the MAGA Dozen Fund on ActBlue! These 15 incumbent members of the GOP are MAGA Republicans residing in swing districts. The challengers are all strong and can win in these tougher districts. Please donate and then share a link to this site on your social media! #MAGADozen
