The Democratic contest in western Wisconsin to take on Rep. Derrick Van Orden turns heated

WASHINGTON – Two years ago, the Democrats competing for a shot at a western Wisconsin House swing seat rarely mentioned one another.

The candidates appeared more as a team than as opponents, reserving their harsh words only for their rival in November: Republican Derrick Van Orden.

Now, however, the tone is different.

The Democratic primary for Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District has grown increasingly heated. Two of the candidates, small-business owner Rebecca Cooke and Stevens Point state Rep. Katrina Shankland, are publicly sparring. And a sitting Wisconsin congressman has injected himself into the conversation with just days to go until the Aug. 13 primary — adding to a shift that has caught the eye of Democrats and Republicans alike.

“I was trying my best to keep the respective camps positive and focused on (Van Orden),” said former Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, who represented the district from 1996 until his retirement in 2022. “But that’s the nature of a competitive primary I guess.”

Nearly all of the infighting has come between Cooke and Shankland, the top two candidates in the three-way race to face Van Orden. Cooke, who came in second in 2022’s primary, has attempted to paint Shankland, a 37-year-old self-described full-time legislator elected to the state Assembly in 2012, as a career politician. Shankland, meanwhile, has called Cooke, 36, inexperienced and accused her of attempting to distort Shankland’s record while misleading the public about her own background.

The simmering bitterness broke out into the open late last month when Shankland accused Cooke of lying about Shankland’s legislative record with a posting on her website she said was Cooke’s signal to outside groups to attack Shankland.

The posting, made to Cooke’s “media toolkit” page, accused Shankland of being “the only Democrat to vote in committee with Republicans to pass a bill to block the state from expanding Badgercare without approval from the Republican legislature.” It referenced a 2018 bill aimed at holding down Obamacare premiums.

The bill included an amendment that prohibited the Department of Health Services from expanding Medicaid absent the approval of the state Legislature. Shankland, however, opposed that amendment in committee, though she joined other Democrats in helping to pass the bill as a whole. Shankland’s campaign noted Shankland has long supported expanding Badgercare, pointing to legislation she helped introduce to do just that.

At least one outside group, New Democrat Majority, included the attack in a 30-second ad accusing Shankland of "working for Republicans, not for you."

Shankland last week held a press conference to address the issue and blamed Cooke for the race’s negative turn.

“It sets the wrong precedent for future primaries, and it is harmful to our democracy when so much dark money comes into a Democratic primary, some of which is used to attack a longstanding lawmaker’s legislative record," she said.

Not long later, Cooke sent out a news release doubling down on her attacks and accusing the Stevens Point Democrat of having “taken this race negative” first, citing an ad Shankland cut in July noting Cooke has never held public office.

Cooke, who is from Eau Claire, has touted her background growing up on a farm in the district as she’s positioned herself as a political outsider. She’s posted pictures of herself working as a waitress at a restaurant, and she previously ran a boutique that closed in 2022 and is the founder of a nonprofit that supports women business owners. But she also has experience in political fundraising for campaigns across the country.

U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan injects himself into race

Adding to — and perhaps amplifying — the back and forth is U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan.

Pocan, a Madison Democrat who has long voiced support for not getting involved in Democratic primaries, endorsed Shankland in January and in recent weeks has frequently tweeted about Cooke’s attacks on Shankland, accusing Cooke of being “deceitful” and calling on her to disavow dark money groups.

Asked about the attacks in the race, Pocan told reporters last week that this cycle’s contest was a “different race.” He accused Cooke of running as a progressive last cycle and a conservative this cycle, a reference in part to an endorsement she received from the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of moderate Democrats in Congress.

“I mean, we have to defeat Derrick Van Orden, and it is dangerous to our efforts to get that done to be doing what’s happening right now,” said Pocan.

The rhetoric is a marked difference from 2022, when Cooke and three other Democrats refrained from attacking one another and rather trained their attention on Van Orden. During a televised primary debate last cycle, the candidates never went on the offensive and rather sought to differentiate themselves by talking about their own backgrounds.

(There will be no televised primary debate in the district this year after Cooke and Eric Wilson, the third Democrat in the race, could not agree on a date. There have been a handful of party-led forums.)

Van Orden, a former Navy SEAL, went on to defeat state Sen. Brad Pfaff by about 4 points in 2022, flipping the state’s most competitive district red for the first time in 26 years.

National Democrats call Derrick Van Orden a top target

National Democrats have named the district among their top targets to flip this cycle. House Majority PAC, Democrats’ largest outside group for congressional campaigns, last week reserved just under $4 million in television ads for October around the district, though the group ended up canceling similar reservations in the district last cycle.

The Cook Political Report, an election handicapper, rates the race as “lean Republican.”

National Republicans, meanwhile, sought to capitalize on the Democratic sparring. The National Republican Congressional Committee this week said Cooke and Shankland are battling to turn western Wisconsin into “far left liberal San Francisco.”

“The messy Democrat primary gets worse by the day — whomever crawls out will be broke, muddied and outright unelectable,” NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella said.

The tone change also comes as Cooke holds a large fundraising edge over Shankland and Wilson.

Cooke reported raising more than $2 million as of the end of July and had about $590,000 in cash on hand heading into the primary, according to Federal Election Commission filings. Shankland raised $867,000 over the same period and had about $189,000 in her war chest.

Wilson, meanwhile, has raised a little more than $181,000 this cycle and had $29,000 in cash left in his account at the end of last month.

Van Orden’s latest campaign finance report showed he raised nearly $4.9 million so far this cycle. He had $2.4 million in cash on hand heading into the primary, where he will not face an opponent.

Former U.S. Rep. Ron Kind decries party infighting

Kind, the former Congressman for the district, told the Journal Sentinel he will not endorse a candidate in the primary. He lamented the Democratic infighting, saying it could “create unnecessary divisions and hard feelings” and potentially alienate other Democratic voters in the general election.

“All this can backfire on you in a primary, and that's why primaries are hard," Kind said. "You try to make a point of distinction of what you're offering versus your primary opponents, but you don't want to do it in a way that's going to alienate your opponents' supporters at the end of the day."

Still, other Wisconsin Democrats have brushed off questions about how the primary could impact Democrats in the general election.

At a forum in Eau Claire last month, all three Democratic candidates pledged they would support the nominee in the district no matter who wins on Aug. 13.

“I will be supporting the Democratic nominee because Derrick Van Orden is one of the most extreme members of Congress,” Shankland said at the forum, framing the pledge as an effort to protect democracy. “We should work hard, and we should work together.”

“That’s something we all have to come together and do,” Cooke said of the unity pledge. “Because at the end of the day, Derrick Van Orden is who we are really running against, and he is not the right fit for us here in western Wisconsin.”

One Democratic strategist summed up the primary tension this way: “It’s only a bad thing if they can’t put Humpty Dumpty back together again.”

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Democratic contest to take on Derrick Van Orden turns heated