Nobody is taking Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District for granted in 2024.

“This is a very competitive district,” said UW-La Crosse political science professor Anthony Chergosky.

“The road to the White House runs through Wisconsin 3,” Democratic candidate Rebecca Cooke said.

“Am I going to campaign for myself? Absolutely. Other local candidates? Absolutely,” Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden said.

The 3rd Congressional District, which encompasses most of western and parts of central Wisconsin, is the most purple district in a purple state — every vote is up for grabs.

Van Orden first won the seat in 2022 when it was open. He declined multiple requests to be interviewed both in-person and virtually for this story, but spoke to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter at the 2024 Republican National Convention in July.

“If people look at my record and they understand how many hours we put in to craft very solid, very solid legislation to help out the 3rd, then they should be voting for me,” he said.

Van Orden’s supporters point to committee appointments — especially to the House Committee on Agriculture — as proof he’s working for residents in the 3rd.

Political campaign signs for the 3rd Congressional District candidates Rebecca Cooke and Derrick Van Orden are displayed in front yards on Aug. 16, 2024 in Richland Center. (Credit: PBS Wisconsin)

“I have worked I don’t know how many hundreds if not thousands of hours getting through a bipartisan farm bill. That is a remarkable piece of legislation that’s going to help everybody, from our smallest farmers all the way to the larger farms,” said Van Orden.

“Derrick Van Orden is known as this very polarizing figure,” said Chergosky, who noted the U.S. House hasn’t done much overall in the 118th session of Congress.

Basically, Congress has just been trying to keep the lights on. I mean, they’ve been really accomplishing the bare minimum,” he said.

Since January 2023, Congress has passed just 43 bills. In the previous two sessions they averaged about 200 bills passed.

“How much of this campaign is going to be about the legislative record of Derrick Van Orden? We just don’t know,” Chergosky added.

Anthony Chergosky, a UW-La Crosse political science professor, discusses the importance of Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District race on Sept. 10, 2024 in La Crosse. “This is a very competitive district,” Chergosky said. (Credit: PBS Wisconsin)

Since he was sworn in, four bills with Van Orden as a sponsor or co-sponsor have been passed by the house. Three are related to the armed services (HR 346, HR 366, HR 1096) , and one (HR 5110) clarifies that federal funds can be used to buy archery or shooting sports equipment in schools.

Committees Van Orden is a member of have also passed legislation. The largest is the 2024 Farm Bill, which has drawn bipartisan praise, but has still not been signed into law as legislators haggle over details.

“So when people say I’m not helping our smaller farmers or farmers at all, that’s another lie and I just don’t appreciate it,” Van Orden said.

But if you ask a Democrat, Van Orden is a fringe MAGA politician.

“Derrick Van Orden is a lot of talk and no walk. You know, he’s continued to, I think, push radicalism and his temperament — I think it’s all about partisan game playing,” said Cooke during an Aug. 16 press conference in La Crosse.

Cooke is the Democratic nominee for the 3rd after winning the party’s 2024 primary.

“I think he’s really proven time and time again by his outbursts, and there’s kind of like a laundry list at this point,” she said.

Outside of his legislative record, controversy has followed Van Orden since his first run in 2020.

He attended Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally on January 6, 2021, yelled at a teenage librarian over an LGBTQ+ book display in Prairie du Chien in 2021, brought a loaded handgun through a TSA checkpoint at an Iowa airport in 2022, yelled at a group of teenage U.S. Senate pages in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda for taking pictures in 2023 in 2023, shouted over President Joe Biden’s 2024 State of the Union address, and got into a heated altercation with a protester outside of the 2024 RNC.

“People are just plain embarrassed, I think, by the actions that he takes,” Cooke said.

“I would love them to actually look at my voting record and not listen to the noise that’s been putting out,” said Van Orden.

His voting and bill sponsorship record shows he has the most moderate voting record of Wisconsin’s congressional delegation.

“You guys don’t understand how many Democrat friends I have in Washington, D.C. The press won’t report it,” Van Orden said.

But Democrats aren’t convinced.

“I can promise you that when push comes to shove, a lot of the radical things that he’s talking about — consistently on social media, consistently in the press — are going to be where he’s going” said Cooke.

Rebecca Cooke, Democratic candidate for Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District in 2024, discusses the importance of health care access as an issue during a press conference on Aug. 16, 2024 in La Crosse. One example she noted was “what Medicare reimbursement rates look like for hospitals in order to be staying open and serving critical populations,” Cooke said. (Credit: PBS Wisconsin)

If she were elected, Cooke said things would be different.

“I think what really sets me apart are my lived experiences,” she said, pointing to experiences like growing up on a family farm in Eau Claire, running a small business and waitressing three nights a week even during the campaign.

“Those types of lived experiences, I think, lend themselves well to being a legislator that really understands what working people are looking for in their representative and what I can deliver on in Congress,” she said.

Cooke said she would like to serve on the House Agriculture committee, as Van Orden does, and work on the Farm Bill to make sure it protects small family farms.

“One of the things that I’m really interested in is ‘right to repair’ — so, the right to repair your own stuff. I’d love to see something like that be incorporated into the Farm Bill in the future,” she said.

Among the issues listed on her campaign website, Cooke also wants to expand access to health care in western Wisconsin, where the number of providers has shrunk since the pandemic.

“We’ve lost hospital systems. It’s not even health care providers, but we’ve lost, like, literal hospitals for people to go to,” she said.

To promote more health care options, Cooke said the federal government needs to look at tangible solutions, including, “what Medicare reimbursement rates look like for hospitals in order to be staying open and serving critical populations.”

Cooke says other priorities include codifying abortion access formerly federally protected in Roe v. Wade, taking on corporations who have been price gouging consumers, and securing federal funding for PFAS cleanup.

At former President Donald Trump’s Aug. 29 rally in La Crosse, Van Orden said he also wants to talk about policy.

“Here in southwestern Wisconsin, honestly, we want to talk about policy. We want to talk about issues. We really don’t want to talk about personality,” he said.

U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Prairie du Chien, in incumbent in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, discusses his vision on running for another term during a press conference on July 16, 2024 at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. (Credit: PBS Wisconsin)

But Van Orden’s campaign website, where he lays out his top policy priorities, has not been updated since 2021. His positions include ending COVID-19 restrictions on schools, tax cuts and, “leading with integrity.”

Van Orden’s social media accounts are also light on policy, and PBS Wisconsin could not find a campaign platform or specific policy positions elsewhere.

As to how all of this will play out? It’s anyone’s guess.

“Can Derrick Van Orden continue to emphasize his brand as a political outsider, even though he is now in Congress? And can Rebecca Cooke withstand millions of dollars of negative campaigning?” Chergosky asked.

Political insiders believe Van Orden still has the inside track, but with money from state and national groups pouring into the race, nothing is certain.

“Derrick Van Orden is the favorite, but not overwhelmingly so,” Chergosky added. “And a lot can happen between now and November to either solidify Van Orden’s advantage or to undermine his advantage.”

Editor’s note: This report sources an interview conducted by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Tamia Fowlkes at the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.