Democratic field narrows in bid to oust Trump-aligned Rep. Derrick Van Orden in 3rd District
WASHINGTON – After ballooning to five candidates, the Democratic primary to unseat Donald Trump-aligned freshman Republican U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden in a key Wisconsin battleground district has shrunk in recent weeks.
And national Democrats appear to be paying closer attention to the fight this time around.
Former La Crosse County Board chairwoman Tara Johnson dropped out of the race earlier this month and warned of a crowded primary. And Madison U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan this week threw his support behind Stevens Point state Rep. Katrina Shankland as he called for Democrats to unite behind one candidate.
Eau Claire non-profit leader Rebecca Cooke, meanwhile, has reported raising about $800,000 since she entered the race last July, and she picked up an endorsement in December from the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of moderate Democrats in Congress. Cooke came in second in 2022’s Democratic primary for the seat.
Eric Wilson, an Eau Claire Democrat, remains in the race, but Harvard Law School student Aaron Nytes ended his campaign.
The developments come as Democrats in Washington appear to be putting a greater focus on the Wisconsin swing seat after facing accusations of abandoning the seat in 2022.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, House Democrat’s campaign arm, listed Van Orden’s 3rd Congressional District among its top targets for 2024 and has consistently attacked Van Orden over the last several months on everything from his ties to Jan. 6 to his temperament and the current dysfunction in the House of Representatives.
A spokeswoman for the DCCC in an email to the Journal Sentinel this week said Van Orden is “increasingly vulnerable.” The group has targeted about 33 seats across the country as Democrats aim to flip Republicans' slim control of the House this year.
The DCCC is unlikely to weigh in on the primary, however, and just how much attention they put on the race might remain unclear until after Wisconsin’s Aug. 13 primary. But Democrats in the state like Pocan, perhaps Van Orden’s most outspoken critic, say they are confident their national counterparts in Washington are poised to invest in the race in 2024.
“It’s 180 degrees different,” Pocan told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel of the attention on the 3rd District, adding that national Democrats are showing “real commitment to Wisconsin." He noted he spoke with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries last week about the race and said: “Two years ago, it was like talking to a wall. This time, it’s like talking to a sponge. They’re very receptive.”
Van Orden, for his part, told the Journal Sentinel he “didn’t run for Congress to run for Congress” and noted he sits on three committees relevant to his district: the Agriculture, Transportation and Infrastructure and Veterans Affairs committees. He pointed to his work to get answers after a train derailment in his district last year and his push to keep whole milk in schools as some of his accomplishments.
The National Republican Congressional Committee, the House GOP’s main campaign organization, is likely to help defend Van Orden. A spokesman for the group this week told the Journal Sentinel that whichever Democrat emerges as the nominee “will be too extreme and unpalatable for the votes of western Wisconsin.”
Van Orden this month became the first Wisconsin Republican on Capitol Hill to endorse Trump. He campaigned for the former president ahead of the Iowa caucuses.
Still, the Democratic primary in the district appears to be a race between Cooke and Shankland as Democrats in the state consolidate their support.
Onalaska state Rep. Steve Doyle, who supported Johnson before she dropped out, endorsed Shankland last week. And Pocan, who said he does not typically endorse in primaries, said he did so this week because Democrats need “the strongest possible challenger” to defeat Van Orden. He cited Shankland’s more than a decade as a legislator in the district.
Johnson told the Journal Sentinel she has “no immediate endorsement plans,” and former U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, who retired in 2022, said he has no plans to endorse “at the present time." A source close to state Sen. Brad Pfaff, the Democratic nominee in the district in 2022, said Pfaff is unlikely to make an endorsement in the primary.
The current candidates have made the race largely about Van Orden and refrained from attacking one another. But they have attempted to differentiate themselves.
Anthony Chergosky, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, said endorsements, building trust and positive impressions with voters and a candidate’s “brand” are key factors in a primary race where candidates might not have major policy differences.
Cooke, who outperformed expectations in last year’s primary, has highlighted her background as a small-business owner and waitress raised on a dairy farm in the district as she makes her pitch for a fresh face in Congress.
She declined to be interviewed but said in an email to the Journal Sentinel that she is running because “Congress is full of career politicians, and I believe every person who is trying to make their ends meet needs a Representative who gets what they are going through.”
Shankland, whose campaign did not respond to an interview request, has touted her experience as an elected legislator in the district, saying in a recent local radio interview that her elected experience “is what really sets me apart from the rest of the field.” In a statement Wednesday, Shankland said she has a record of "winning in tough races" and noted she has passed 179 bills into law.
Even with the recent narrowing of the primary field, Democrats have hinted at a desire to back one candidate against Van Orden.
Johnson in her statement announcing her withdrawal from the race said that a crowded primary “means we are consumed with competing for the money to win the August primary when beating Derrick Van Orden in November is the most important thing.”
“I think there will be pressure on Democrats to unify around a candidate and to do so relatively soon,” said Chergosky, the UW-La Crosse professor.
For now, however, the Democrats in the 3rd District appear focused on their Republican opponent.
“I would say the one thing we all agree on is Derrick Van Orden should be one-term member of Congress and probably should have never gotten elected in the first place,” Shankland said in a WISM radio interview in La Crosse this month. “And I think we're gonna unite around the candidate who can win.”
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Democratic field narrows in bid to oust Rep. Derrick Van Orden
