Wisconsin Democrat Rebecca Cooke Reports $2.4 Million First-Quarter Haul in Bid to Oust Rep. Derrick Van Orden

Rebecca Cooke, the Democrat challenging Rep. Derrick Van Orden in one of the nation’s hottest House races, raised more than $2.4 million in the first quarter of 2026, according to her most recent Federal Election Commission filing.

Cooke’s latest campaign-finance report also indicates that she entered April with more than $4.4 million of that in cash — a massive amount at this point in an election year for any U.S. House candidate, particularly a nonincumbent.

Of the more than $2.4 million Cooke’s campaign took in during the first three months of this year, about $1.67 million came in the form of contributions from individual people.

The rest mostly came from other political committees. The largest contribution to Cooke’s campaign was $633,000 from the Wall Street-backed House Victory Project in March. The next biggest donations were $21,000 and $16,000 from the joint fundraiser Dem Rising 2026, a new group backing swing-district challengers, and the Blue Dog Victory Fund, respectively.

Van Orden, who represents Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District in the central and southwest sections of the state, had not filed his first-quarter campaign finance report by 7:40 p.m. ET on Wednesday. The deadline is 11:59 p.m. ET.

Rep. Derrick Van Orden. Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP

Cooke, a small-business owner who ran a nonprofit supporting women entrepreneurs, outraised Van Orden by more than $200,000 in the last quarter of 2025, though he previously outraised her. Van Orden’s campaign entered the year with more than $2.7 million in reserve.

The nonpartisan Cook Political Report has declared the race a “toss up,” meaning either candidate is equally likely to win.

Cooke, who lost to Van Orden in 2024 by fewer than 3 percentage points, reported the largest first-quarter fundraising haul of any candidate in the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s Red to Blue organizing program as of Wednesday evening. The next highest fundraiser, Janelle Stelson in Pennsylvania, who is challenging Rep. Scott Perry, brought in $2.17 million during the first quarter.

The Red to Blue program selects Democratic candidates in highly competitive districts for DCCC organizing and fundraising assistance.

Before running for Congress, Cooke was appointed to the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. She previously ran a political consultancy from 2015 to 2025 that reported more than $190,000 in payments from campaigns and committees, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Van Orden, a Navy veteran, is a member of the House Agriculture Committee, House Veterans Affairs Committee and House Armed Services Committee.