CORRECTION: This article has been updated to clarify that Cooke received more in donor contributions, but Van Orden took in more total contributions.
Rebecca Cooke, the leading Democratic challenger to Rep. Derrick Van Orden in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, outraised the Republican congressman last quarter when it comes to donor contributions, although he raised more in total, according to quarterly Federal Election Commission filings.
Cooke brought in more than $932,000 in donor contributions from July to September, compared with Van Orden’s donor contributions of nearly $723,000. Van Orden took in more in total, however: He received $135,041 in political committee donations, in addition to almost $288,000 in transfers.
Much of that transferred money came from House Majority Whip Tom Emmer’s Emmer Majority Builders PAC and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson’s Grow the Majority PAC.
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Cooke received $66,575 in donations from PACs and political committees, including large donations from the PAC affiliated with the pro-Israel organization J Street. She received another $20,000 in transfers.
Van Orden spent more than $426,000 last quarter, with Cooke not far behind him at more than $395,000 in expenditures.
Van Orden has held onto his bank account advantage. His campaign committee reported more than $2.2 million in cash on hand as of Sept. 30, while Cooke has $1.8 million.
Cooke ran against Van Orden in 2024, but the congressman kept his seat with 51.3% of the vote, a margin of fewer than 12,000 ballots, according to Ballotpedia.
Cooke is a small business owner who started a nonprofit to support women entrepreneurs in western Wisconsin, according to her campaign site. She made her first bid for Congress in 2022, but lost in the Democratic primary to state senator Brad Pfaff. This time around, Cooke has notched the endorsements of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, and a PAC affiliated with the Blue Dog Coalition, a caucus of moderate House Democrats.
Van Orden, a former Navy SEAL running for his third term, has stirred controversy as one of the Wisconsin delegation’s most outspoken members. He attended the Jan. 6, 2021, “Save America” rally that preceded the attack on the Capitol, has exchanged personal insults with his colleague Rep. Mark Pocan and has blamed Democrats for the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk and the attempted assassinations of President Donald Trump.
Van Orden’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment on his FEC filings on Thursday.
Cooke said in a press release on Monday that grassroots donors drive her campaign.
“Unlike Derrick Van Orden, I don’t take corporate PAC money, so I’m not beholden to the same special interests lining their pockets off the tax breaks he voted for,” Cooke said.
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