Let Her Cooke: The now-Democratic nominee in the 3rd Congressional District wins big in primary

The Recombobulation Area is a 19-time 21-TIME! Milwaukee Press Club award-winning opinion column and online publication founded by Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer.

This column is one part of Dan Shafer’s deep-dive mega-breakdown of the election results from Wisconsin’s Aug. 11 partisan primary. Read the full column with all 12 takeaways here.

Each of these 12 takeaways are available as a standalone free version. Find each of those here.

While the Democratic gubernatorial primary wasn’t called until the wee hours, another competitive race Democratic got a quick call: the one in the 3rd Congressional District.

Decision Desk HQ@DecisionDeskHQ

Decision Desk HQ projects Rebecca Cooke wins the WI US House 3 Democratic Primary #DecisionMade: 9:35 PM EDT

1:36 AM · Aug 12, 2026 · 71.8K Views

4 Replies · 40 Reposts · 190 Likes

For all the attention Emily Berge’s spirited run got, the race wasn’t close — Cooke won by more than 20 points.

Cooke’s conversation with our friend Kate Duffy just before Election Day was a terrific reminder of who this candidate is, and why she’s uniquely positioned to defeat Derrick Van Orden in November.

The rematch between Cooke and Van Orden is going to be one of the most-watched races in the House this fall — Nate Silver’s new House forecasting model gives her a miniscule edge — so put yet another race in the toss-up column in Wisconsin.

Meanwhile, it should be noted, Derrick Van Orden is spending his time performatively election-denying around the results of the Democratic primary — is it real truther belief, or is he just trolling to rile up folks on the left? — and posting some genuinely bizarre AI videos of Cooke.

It should be an extraordinarily weird few months in western Wisconsin, but Cooke’s big tent that spans from Bernie Sanders to Tammy Baldwin to the Blue Dogs could be the right mix to flip this district back into Democratic control.

Dan Shafer is an independent journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He worked with Civic Media from 2024 to 2026. He’s written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 24 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

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