District: WI-03
Cook Political Ranking: Toss Up
Performance Voter Index: R+3
Rebecca Cooke is running for Congress in Wisconsin’s 3rd congressional district. Cooke was born and raised on an Eau Claire dairy farm. Cooke attended the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, and then worked to elect Democrats to public office around the country. She returned home to Eau Claire and opened a small retail business. Looking to help other local entrepreneurs, she founded the Red Letter Grant in 2016, a nonprofit that supports and empowers female entrepreneurs by providing start-up capital, technical assistance, and authentic networking opportunities throughout a ten-county region of western Wisconsin. Governor Tony Evers took notice of Cooke’s business leadership and activism in the entrepreneurship ecosystem and made her the youngest appointee to the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation. This will be Cooke’s third time running for WI-03; in 2022 she lost in the primary, and in 2024 she challenged and was ultimately defeated by Rep.Derrick Van Orden.

Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District covers a large portion of southwestern and western Wisconsin. The district includes the cities of Eau Claire, La Crosse, and Stevens Point, as well as many Wisconsin-based exurbs of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. This district is currently held by Republican incumbent Rep. Derrick Van Orden. Ahead of the 2022 race, this district did not change much under the redistricting process. Under the old district lines, in 2020, former President Trump won the district by 5 points, and in 2024, he would have won the district by 7 points under new lines. In 2024, the race for WI-03 saw nearly $12.2 million in outside spending, with Republican Rep. Van Orden raising $7.3 million and Democratic challenger Rebecca Cooke raising $8.5 million. Cooke is on the DCCC’s Red to Blue list and is challenging incumbent Rep.Van Orden again.