US Rep. Derrick Van Orden begins his campaign ad by handling a pistol, displaying a Bible, and showing a photo of himself as a young sailor.
“I fought extremists overseas as a Navy SEAL,” Van Orden says in the ad, “but now they are here.”
And who is this dangerous extremist Van Orden seems to want to go to war with? It’s a young woman who says she’s speaking for the people who are tired of all this war talk from politicians.
“We need more people in the middle,” said Rebecca Cooke, “willing to work across the aisle to get things done.”
Like other races this year, the campaign in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District can readily be seen as a battle between two emotions: frustration and fear.
Van Orden is the Republican incumbent seeking a third term. Cooke is his Democratic challenger — again. She came within three percentage points of unseating Van Orden in 2024 when she outperformed both Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Vice President Kamala Harris. Cooke defeated former Eau Claire City Council president Emily Berge in the primary this month, setting up the rematch.
The 3rd Congressional District covers all or parts of 19 counties in west central, southwest, and central Wisconsin. It includes the cities of La Crosse, Eau Claire, Stevens Point, Wisconsin Rapids, Richland Center, and Platteville.
Van Orden pushes fear and confrontation
While Van Orden, 56, resides in Prairie du Chien, it can also be said fairly that he lives mostly on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, with thousands of tweets that are catalogued and mocked in a weekly feature by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.
Van Orden has a nearly perpetual presence online, ready to trade insults, threaten people’s employment, and punch down (metaphorically) on constituents.
Not content to be pegged as an unseen “keyboard warrior,” Van Orden is also famous for his public tirades: screaming in committee hearings and congressional briefings and losing his temper at young Capitol pages and a library worker. And he remains unapologetic for his presence beyond police boundaries on the grounds of the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 and says he did not take part in any of the violence from the insurrection of that day.
As for actual accomplishments as a lawmaker, Van Orden’s record can be measured by two bills: one that passed and one that remains years overdue.
The so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” at the heart of Van Orden’s allegiance to President Donald Trump’s budget cuts passed the US House by a single vote, 215-214, so it’s fair to say Van Orden was the deciding vote to strip health insurance from 76,000 people, while another 236,000 would see their premiums rise, leading some of them to become uninsured. An estimated 144,000 Wisconsinites would be at risk of losing food benefits through SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Van Orden regularly regurgitates the false claim that only undocumented immigrants and people committing fraud would be impacted by the cuts.
Meanwhile, a renewed farm bill remains stalled, as it has been since Republicans took over Congress in 2023, a center point for the uncertainty that rocks farmers in a district that is consistently among nation’s leaders in dairy output, the overall production of livestock, and farms owned by families rather than corporations. It ranks first in the state for poultry and eggs, cattle and calves, hogs and pigs, and total crop value.
In recognition of Van Orden’s vulnerable status representing a “purple” district, GOP leadership gave him one of the coveted seats on the House Agriculture Committee, but it has also made Van Orden a symbol of the Republicans’ inability to pass a farm bill that would provide support for farmers, nutrition assistance programs, conservation, exports, and other agricultural functions. Instead, the 2018 Farm Bill has had to be extended in 2023, 2024, and 2025 — with still no guarantee of progress in 2026.
Cooke carries voters’ frustrations over politics and the economy
Cooke, 38, grew up on a dairy farm near Eau Claire and was active in 4-H. She has owned a small retail business, operated a nonprofit group that catered to female entrepreneurs, served with Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, and continues working as a waitress.
Speaking after her primary win as part of a state Democratic “unity tour,” Cooke echoed her ongoing themes that seek to tap into the frustration voters are feeling over inflation, healthcare cuts, the war with Iran, and more.
“This moment right now is for the coalition of small business owners, healthcare workers, farmers, educators across the district, a coalition we need to grow even more if we want to flip this seat,” Cooke said. “We need more working class people to represent us in [Washington,] DC. Folks that aren’t so far left or so far right who want to work across the aisle to actually get things done for working class people and retirees.”
Although Van Orden is trying to paint Cooke as a radical extremist, she has the unique distinction of being among only four Democratic congressional candidates who have captured an unusual pair of endorsements: the moderate Blue Dogs political action committee and Sen. Bernie Sanders, a democratic socialist from Vermont. Politico reports all four have working class jobs or backgrounds and are leaning into a working class populist message.
“Our tent is a big one,” Cooke said, “squarely focused on lowering costs, combatting corruption, supporting small business, bolstering agriculture, and building back an American dream that we can reach.”
However, after emphasizing voters’ frustrations about challenging economics and politics-as-usual, Cooke then asked her audience to pivot to thoughts that are more motivational. While a lot of her doorstep conversations focus on what kinds of things are keeping people up at night, she’s now asking them to talk to her about “what’s getting you out of bed in the morning? What is giving you hope?” And she asks voters to harness that hope over the remaining days of the campaign because flipping the 3rd District could be the election that kicks Republicans out of the House majority for the final two years of Trump’s term.
