Earlier this summer, WelcomePAC was proud to endorse Rebecca Cooke in our first set of endorsements for the 2026 election cycle. We were excited to endorse and support Rebecca in 2024 as part of our inaugural Win The Middle slate, and we covered her launch for the 2026 cycle back in March.
As we look to the 2026 midterm elections, we’re all in to help Rebecca as she builds on the momentum of her last campaign and finishes the job of unseating Derrick Van Orden in Wisconsin’s third congressional district.
Rebecca Cooke Can Win
In 2024, Rebecca came within striking distance of flipping one of last cycle’s most competitive U.S. House seats in the country. She ran nearly 5 points ahead of Harris in the district, and even ran ahead of popular incumbent U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin by more than a point (Baldwin went on to win re-election).
How did Rebecca manage to come within 2.7 points of victory in a race that started the cycle as Likely Republican? By focusing on what is best for Wisconsin and meeting voters where they are.
Rebecca is a sixth generation Wisconsinite who grew up working on her parents’ dairy farm. She’s from the district, started her own small business in the district, and works as a waitress in her hometown in between campaign events. Rebecca is able to build trust with voters because her lived experiences are very similar to theirs. As a result, she’s earned trust from a wide range of supporters – from Trump voters to Blue Dog Democrats to U.S. Sen Bernie Sanders. This is exactly the type of big-tent coalition she’ll need to win in this district, and we’re excited to see her continue to cultivate it.
The District
Wisconsin's third congressional district covers 19 counties in a vast area of western Wisconsin known as “the Driftless.” Outside of the population centers of Eau Claire and La Crosse, this is a largely rural and agricultural district with a reputation for being independent and swingy – despite its current extreme representative in Congress. Prior to Van Orden, this district was represented by the famously moderate Democrat Ron Kind for 26 years.
Wisconsin’s third has lived up to its purple reputation in recent elections. In 2022, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers won the district by about a point, while Derrick Van Orden won by 3.7 points, and incumbent Republican Sen. Ron Johnson won by 5.7. The next year in the Wisconsin Supreme Court Race, Janet Protasiewicz, the Justice who Democratic groups backed, won by 10 points.
The Incumbent
Derrick Van Orden is someone the Welcome team refers to as “a walking opposition book.” Some of his most prominent highlights include:
Being present at the Capitol insurrection on January 6th
Trying to bring a loaded gun through airport security
Exposing another man’s genitals to female officers while in the Navy SEALS
Yelling at…well pretty much everyone (from teenage Senate pages to children in libraries to White House officials to House committee witnesses and *checks notes*... the President of the United States.
And those are just the people he yells at in person! It does not account for the thousands of tweets he has sent out while in Congress from his personal account, many of which take aim at those who disagree with him. One tweet in particular stood out following his vote to pass the “Big Beautiful Bill”:
As Democrats prepare to run against Republicans for gutting Medicaid and kicking millions of people off of their health insurance, most Republicans are trying to disguise the extent of the cuts. Meanwhile, Derrick Van Orden is bragging about them.
Van Orden has proven time and time again that he does not care about the people of southwestern Wisconsin – or really anyone, for that matter. He is a poster child for performative politics and talking a big game while actively passing legislation that hurts his constituents, including the ones who voted for him.
Welcome Picks Over-Performers
Welcome has a proven record of identifying the races that pundits and race-raters miss. In 2022, we focused on Colorado's 3rd and California’s 41st — districts that were widely considered Safe Republican seats that ended up being very competitive. We also identify over-performers: in 2024, all of our candidates had a positive “wins above replacement” score, according to Split Ticket.
Our strategy is simple, but rarely practiced: we find under-the-radar districts that are trending toward Democrats that are represented by extremist Republicans, and we recruit centrist Democrats who can appeal to moderate Republicans and swing voters.
Rebecca Cooke checked all those boxes and then some in 2024, and we are excited to support her campaign again as she aims to be the elected leader voters in Wisconsin’s third congressional district deserve. We hope you’ll join us as we help her unseat Derrick Van Orden in 2026.
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