3rd Congressional District Primary Candidates Hosting Unity Tour

The 3rd Congressional District Democratic Primary candidates have put their differences aside, looking towards November’s general election.

Following Tuesday’s primary election, which saw Rebecca Cooke win the Democratic nomination over State Representative Katrina Shankland and Eric Wilson, the trio is touring the district together to preach unity as they take aim at incumbent Republican Congressman Derrick Van Orden. On Thursday, they visited the Eau Claire Democratic Resource Center to share their excitement about the final sprint of the campaign.

In his statement, Wilson focused on the commonality between the candidates despite their differing opinions on how to go about addressing the issues they all care about.

“And really this year what we’re fighting is bigger than us as individuals,” said Wilson. “We are fighting hate. We are fighting extremism. We are fighting so that we don’t lose our rights as people. And that’s really what brings us together, when we are focusing on community. And so even though we have our differences, which I think we all stated quite clearly throughout this, we still have more in common than we don’t.”

Shankland used her remarks to take aim at the Project 2025 agenda and stress the importance of not only the 3rd Congressional District, but the State Assembly, United States Senate, and Presidential races.

“We’ve all, maybe not read all 900 pages of Project 2025, but at least skimmed the most devastating agenda that I’ve ever seen from Republicans,” said Shankland. “Whether it’s surveilling women’s bodies which is just creepy, or whether it’s eliminating our EPA, destroying environmental protections, privatizing public education, there are so many reasons why we came together today to not only stand up for our Democracy and our freedoms, but also work really hard to elect our entire Democratic ticket including Rebecca Cooke, our 3rd CD nominee.”

After winning the Democratic nomination earlier this week, Cooke used her comments to take aim at her next opponent, Congressman Van Orden.

“All we know is that Derrick Van Orden is a bully,” said Cooke. “And we’ve seen that time and time again in the way that he’s interacted with people. From participating in the Stop the Steal rally, from carrying a loaded weapon through TSA, from harassing young Senate pages, lashing out at the President during the State of the Union Address, the list is gonna go on and it’s going to continue to go on, especially when we come hard for him, and we are gonna come hard.”

Following Cooke’s win in the primary election on Tuesday, Congressman Van Orden released a statement in which he referred to Cooke as “Rebecca Crook.”

“This election is about whether we will elect a candidate that has a vision to bring prosperity, security, and integrity back to government, or one that will use DC like her personal piggy bank, as Rebecca Crook as done in Madison,” said Congressman Van Orden in the statement. “I have a proven record of fighting for our farmers, veterans, seniors, and all businesses across the district. Crook has a record of being a shady political insider pretending to be a philanthropist.”

Congressman Van Orden and Cooke will face off in the general election on November 5th.