November. Reporting from Westby. I'm Aditi Debnath. For "Here&
Now". Westby comes as more eyes are
drawn to western Wisconsin and its congressional race.
Republican Derek Van Orden won the open seat in a tight race in
2022. But as Election Day gets closer, an outside spending
continues to grow. Nathan Denzin reports experts predict this
year's race will be even tighte. >> Nobody is taking the third
Congressional District for granted in 2024.
>> This is a very competitive district.
runs through Wisconsin. >> Three they weren't going to
campaign for myself. Absolutely. Other local candidates?
Absolutely. most of Western and parts of
central Wisconsin, is the most purple district in a purple
state. Every vote is up for grabs. Republican Derek Van
Orden is the incumbent after winning the open seat in 2022.
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 RNC in July.
and they understand how many hours we put in to craft very
solid, very solid legislation to help out the third, then they
should be voting for me. >> His supporters point to
committee appointments, especially to the House
Committee on Agriculture, as proof he's working for residents
in the third. >> I've 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. >> Derrick Van Orden is known as
this very polarizing figure. >> Anthony Chergosky is a
political scientist at UW lacrosse. He says the House
hasn't done much overall. >> Basically, Congress has just
been trying to keep the lights on. I mean, that's they've been
really accomplishing the bare minimum since January 2023.
>> Congress has passed just 43 bills.
>> The bill is passed 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. >> Since his inauguration, four
bills with Van Orden as a sponsor or co-sponsor have been
passed by the House. Three are related to the armed services,
and one clarifies that federal funds can be used to buy archery
or shooting sports equipment in schools. Committees. Van Norden
is a member of have also passed legislation. The largest is a
2024 farm bill that has drawn bipartisan praise, but has still
not yet been signed into law. As legislators haggle over details
so when people say, I'm not helping our our smaller farmers
or farmers at all, that's another lie and I just don't
appreciate it. But if you ask a Democrat, Van Norden 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 his temperament. I think it's all
about partisan partisan game playing.
Democratic nominee for the third congressional seat.
time and time again by his outbursts. I mean, and it's kind
of like a laundry list at this point.
record, controversy has followed Van Norden since his first run
in 2020. He attended Trump Stop the Steal rally on January 6th.
Brought a loaded handgun through TSA. Yelled at a teenage
librarian over an LGBTQ+ book display. Yelled at a group of
teenage Senate pages in the US Capitol for taking pictures.
Shouted over President Biden's State of the Union address and
got into a heated altercation with a protester outside of the
RNC. embarrassed, I think, by the
actions that he takes. >> I would love them to actually
look at my voting record and not listen to the noise that's been
putting out. >> Van Norden's voting and
sponsorship record shows he's the most moderate member of
Wisconsin's congressional delegation.
many Democrat friends I have in Washington, D.C. the press won't
report it, but Dems aren't convinced.
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.
>> Cooke says that if she were elected, things would be
different. >> I think what really sets me
apart are my lived experiences. >> 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.
>> Cooke says she would like to serve on the House AG Committee,
as Van Norden 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 also wants to expand access to health care in Western
Wisconsin, where the number of providers has shrunk since the
pandemic. It's not even health care
providers, but we've lost, like literal hospitals for people to
go to. >> To do that, she says, the
federal government needs to look at tangible solutions.
>> But Medicare reimbursement rates look like for hospitals in
order to be staying open and serving critical populations.
>> Cooke says other priorities include codifying Roe v Wade,
taking on corporations who have been price gouging consumers,
and securing federal funding for PFAS cleanup at former President
Trump's rally in La Crosse. Van Orden said he also wants to talk
about policy here in southwestern Wisconsin.
about policy. We want to talk about issues. We really don't
want to talk about personnel. >> But Van Norden's 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, end quote. Leading with
integrity Van Orden 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.
continued to emphasize his brand as a political outsider, even
though he is now in Congress, and Ken Rebecca Cooke withstand
millions of dollars of negative campaigning.
Van Norden still has the inside track, but with money from state
and national groups pouring into the race, nothing is certain.
>> Derrick Van Orden is a favorite, but not overwhelmingly
so, and a lot can happen between now and November to either
solidify Van Orden's advantage or to undermine his advantage.