EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) - The 3rd Congressional District Candidates, Congressman Derrick Van Orden and Democratic challenger Rebecca Cooke, squared off for the first time, two weeks before the November 3 midterm election.

Below is the full transcript of the candidate forum.

Kim Leadholm

“Good afternoon and thank you everyone for being here today. The Eau Claire Area Chamber of Commerce and WEAU are excited to be partnering on this candidate forum to discuss issues in the race for Wisconsin’s third congressional district. Our goal here is to provide a safe space where everyone in Western Wisconsin, all Western Wisconsin voters, can hear directly from each candidate so voters can make an informed decision when casting their ballots. We are happy to have Congressman Derrick Van Orden and Miss Rebecca Cooke with us today and thank them for their participation in the forum. This one-hour forum will have 10 or 11 questions depending on the time. Each candidate will have two minutes for an initial response to answer the question and then 30 seconds to respond to the initial answer of the other candidate. To preserve equity, time limits will be enforced and questions will be rotated between candidates, so no candidate will go first and last consistently. John will now share more on the decorum.”

John Frank

“And for folks viewing the broadcast of this forum, a brief explanation of the discussion guidelines. To assure that speakers are treated with respect, the House of Representatives has strict rules of decorum for both its members and the visitors seated in its galleries during the consideration of legislation on the floor of the House. The guidelines for today’s forum and discussion mirror the spirit of those House rules and have been shared with the candidates and the forum audience in advance. Candidates are expected to treat each other with respect and to speak only during the time specifically allotted to them. Further, members of the forum audience have been asked to refrain from audible comments and applause throughout the forum.”

Leadholm

“We will now start with our questions. Congressman Van Orden, you will start first. Our first question surrounds producer costs, inflation and the economy. Businesses throughout Western Wisconsin continue to face higher costs for labor, materials, energy, insurance and borrowing, which in turn often increases the price of goods and services to consumers. What specific federal policies would you support to bring producer costs down while maintaining overall economic growth? Congressman Van Orden, your two-minute answer starts now.”

Van Orden

“Well, thank you for the Chamber. Thank you for everyone coming out today, I appreciate it greatly. I’ll be frank, this political environment is vile. And with that, I want to make sure that you actually know who I am, because I don’t think you really do. My name is Derrick Van Orden. I’ve been representing you in Washington, D.C. for three years. I was raised in abject rural poverty by a single mother and also my Auntie Peggy right there. We had to move in with my grandmother. We were on food stamps when it was a stamp that you actually stuck on a card. We had subsidized lunches and government cheese. I dropped out of high school when I was 16 years old. I joined the Navy at 18. I served for 26 years and retired as a United States Navy SEAL Senior Chief with multiple combat deployments. My wife, Sarah Jane, in the middle. We’ve been married for 34 years now. We just had our 12th grandchild. And 13 and 14 are on the way. And that’s what this election is about. It’s about the future. But let’s talk about the past for a minute. You asked about inflation. It was over 9% under Joe Biden. As of this morning, it’s 2.6%. Eggs were $6 a dozen. They were $1.70 this morning at Kwik Trip. Milk was $4.20 a gallon. It’s now $2.99. Ground beef was $5.60 a pound. It’s now $4.99. This is today. Gas was $5.12 a gallon. It’s now $4.02 a gallon. Here’s the problem. Diesel. It peaked out at $5.86 under Joe Biden. It’s now $6.13 as of this morning. That’s why President Trump signed the Harvest Fuel Relief Act last night. And that will provide $9 billion to our farmers to make sure that the diesel prices get down during this harvest season and we can get over this supply and demand hub that we’re in right now. So that’s who I am. If you want to talk a little bit later about housing, that’s fantastic. We just got the Road to Housing Act done. That’s going to increase liquidity for younger people, get rid of some regulations, so that we can have the American Dream for our young people. And that is home ownership.”

Leadholm

“Ms. Cooke, your two-minute answer.”

Cooke

“Great. Well, thank you so much to the Chamber for hosting today’s conversation. I’m Rebecca Cooke, a sixth-generation Wisconsinite, born and raised here in Eau Claire, just two miles down the road. And I’ve been talking to people all around the 3rd Congressional District about their concerns about rising costs, right? And I’ve been also talking to our producers who are seeing their costs increase as well to produce our goods that are going to the grocery store. I’ve held roundtables across the 3rd Congressional District with farmers from soybean producers to cranberry producers, we’re the largest producers of cranberries in the nation. And from what I’m hearing from our producers, it’s their input costs are increasing. You know, you look at this war in Iran, which has increased diesel prices, increased fertilizer prices. It’s costing more for our farmers to get goods to the store. And you look at this increase in diesel prices. It’s costing more to truck our goods to the grocery store. So, if you’re going to Woodman’s here in town, you’re seeing prices that are through the roof. Just yesterday, I hosted a town hall at the tank talking to people filling up their gas pump at Kwik Trips around the region and asking them, you know, where they think the increased costs come from. And they point squarely to this war in Iran, which Derrick Van Orden voted for six times for. This was a war that our president started without any sort of congressional approval. And I think that we’ve got to have a war powers resolution and make sure that Congress is deciding when we go to war. And also making sure that, you know, we’re putting America first and that we’re investing in our communities, putting Wisconsin first, and that’s not spending billions of taxpayer dollars overseas.”

Leadholm

“Congressman Van Orden, your 30-second response.”

Van Orden

“Thank you. It’s outstanding to hear that Rebecca Cooke is an America first candidate. I will be getting her a MAGA hat later. Listen, let’s talk about Iran right now. Fifty years ago, radical Muslim mullahs took over our embassy in Tehran. And they took 52 Americans’ hostages. They held them for 444 days. And there’s a lot of people out here who had a yellow ribbon around their tree waiting for those hostages to get released. I remember it vividly, even though I was a child. Then, they’re responsible for killing thousands of American citizens, including some of my friends. They’re responsible for the Beirut bombing in 1983. They closed the Straits of Hormuz with conventional weapons only. They must never, ever have a nuclear weapon.”

Leadholm

“Ms. Cooke, your 30-second response.”

Cooke

“Again, I’m focused on an America first agenda and making sure that we’re putting more resources back into the pockets of American taxpayers. I want to make sure that you can afford your healthcare. I want to make sure that our public schools are not having to go to referendum every year. And I want to make sure that you can go to the grocery store, to the gas pump, pay your rental mortgage and have any sort of money left over at the end of the day.”

Frank

“Our next question addresses the workforce and immigration and goes to Ms. Cooke first. As immigration remains one of the most contentious issues in Washington, employers across Western Wisconsin struggle to find enough workers. How would you balance the need for border security with the need for illegal immigration pathways to help employers fill critical workforce shortages?”

Cooke

“Look, I think that it’s very, very important that we make sure that our border remains secure, right? And I want to make sure that our communities remain safe places to live and work and play. But I also want to recognize what a big part of immigrant labor is to our workforce here in West Central Wisconsin. You look at the contributions to our manufacturing sector, to our dairy farmers, and I think that we’ve got to have a clear pathway to citizenship. And one that puts people that are playing by the rules that don’t have criminal backgrounds on that track. And I think for too long, people have been playing partisan politics when it comes to immigration and playing partisan football. And we’ve got to focus on getting something done. And I’m really willing to work across the aisle with anybody to do that. I know that the Congressman here has done some great work around the H-2A visa and looking to elongate that. We know that dairy farmers farm 365 days a year, seven days a week. But the H-2A does not fit the bill for that right now. And so, I’d be in favor of elongating that for sure, similar to the Congressman’s proposals.”

Frank

“Congressman?”

Van Orden

“Thank you very much. Unfortunately, you can say anything you want in politics. It doesn’t have to be associated with the truth. So, I am endorsed by the Border Patrol Union, by the Fraternal Order of Police, the Milwaukee Police Association. And Rebecca Cooke is saying that she wants these secure borders. There’s up to 200,000 illegal aliens entering into the country every single month under Joe Biden’s presidency. And she said nothing. There is a violent criminal Trendy Aragua member who was arrested in Madison, Wisconsin, for violent crimes and released because they’re a sanctuary city. Rebecca supports sanctuary cities. She campaigned with Rob Emanuel. He went up to Minneapolis, Minnesota, committed a property crime. He was released again because they’re a sanctuary city. He made his way down to the small town of Prairie du Chien, where he violently raped and beat a mother and a daughter over a period of days. That’s two miles away from where my grandchildren live. Rebecca Cooke, to this day, has refused to condemn this violence. So again, you can say anything you want up here. Anything you want at all. And it doesn’t have to be associated with the truth. And that’s why we actually made a website. It’s called RebeccaLies.com. And we hung every single thing, publicly available documents, of what Rebecca Cooke has said in the past and what she’s saying now because they are not associated with the truth. As far as citizenship, I did do the Agriculture Labor Reform Act of 2025. Very strict. Very strict. If you’re here illegally, you have to physically leave the country. You have to pay a fine. The employer has to pay a fine. You have to re-enter the country through a legal port of entry. Period. If you’ve done any type of crimes at all, you’re ineligible for this program. So, Rebecca is right. Cows aren’t going to stop milking because of poor immigration policy. A hog’s not going to stop growing because of poor immigration policy. So, as opposed to saying one thing and doing another, I’ve actually been working on this for the three years that I’ve been in Congress.”

Frank

“Ms. Cooke, your 30-second response.”

Cooke

“I do not support violence in our communities in any form. I also want to make sure that our communities remain safe places to live and work and play. I want to underscore that. I think that we should deport people who are criminals in this country. I do not support sanctuary cities. So, those things are false.”

Frank

“Congressman, your 30-second response.”

Van Orden

“RebeccaLies.com. Look at her right now. Now you know what she looks like when she’s lying to you because she just did. How can our cities remain safe when we’re trying to defund the police, Rebecca? Rebecca Cooke has called federal law enforcement disgusting. Those are your words, not mine. Rebecca Cooke wants to ban M4s. How do you protect yourself if you’re defunding the police if you can’t arm yourself? That’s the entire purpose of the Second Amendment. So again, say what you want up here on the stage. We have every bit of proof verifiable on RebeccaLies.com.”

Frank

“The next question involves healthcare and employer costs and goes to Congressman Van Orden first. As the affordability of healthcare continues to be a major concern for employers and employees alike, residents of Western Wisconsin are also experiencing diminishing access to healthcare. What role should the federal government play in reducing healthcare costs and ensuring access to reliable healthcare services in rural communities? Congressman Van Orden, your two-minute answer.”

Van Orden

“Every person here is going to interact with the healthcare system at some point in their life. They’re going to. And this is what’s interesting. After Obamacare has passed, healthcare insurance companies’ profits have increased 1,300 times. Has your healthcare gotten 1,300 times better since Obamacare has passed? It has not. So, what the Democrats did, because that was passed 100% Democrat votes, is they started funneling money to insurance companies who started buying up physician practices, they started buying up pharmacies and the PBMs. It’s a Pharmacy Benefit Manager. And they’ve skyrocketed our pharmaceutical costs. And it’s because of the Democrat Party passing Obamacare with zero Republican votes and then tanking the entire system. As far as here in rural Wisconsin, in the Working Families Tax and Jobs Act, I was able to secure an additional $1 billion for Badger Care in the state of Wisconsin. A billion dollars a year for Badger Care in the state of Wisconsin. We also got a $50 billion rural health care infrastructure revitalization fund. That’s the largest investment in rural healthcare in the history of our country. That’s $203 million a year for five years going to the state of Wisconsin for rural health care. It’s critically important. Look, I told you, I was raised in abject rural poverty. We would be on Badger Care now if, you know, back in the 70s. Excuse me, Tommy Thompson started Badger Care. But we would be on public healthcare right now if we’re in the same circumstances financially. So those programs exist for a reason. They’re critically important. I’ve done everything I can to fully fund them into the future so that ladies don’t have to worry about where they’re getting prenatal care. Or where they’re going to deliver their babies. Or if you break an arm, you can’t afford to get a cast. So that’s what I’ve been working on in Washington, D.C. And it’s coming to fruition right now.”

Frank

“Ms. Cooke, your two-minute answer.”

Cooke

“I think everybody knows about the hospital closures here in the Chippewa Valley. And that was under Derrick Van Orden’s watch. We saw Sacred Heart close. We saw St. Joe’s in Chippewa Falls close. We’ve seen labor and delivery close in neighboring Menomonie. This was during his term as a Congressman. And then you look at the vote that he took for the One Big Beautiful Bill that cut healthcare for millions of Americans. I know that the congressman grew up on SNAP benefits and cut SNAP benefits for millions of Americans. Right? I’ve talked to hospital CEOs and administrators across the 3rd Congressional District. And they are hanging on by a thread. This Rural Health Transformation Fund is a backfill. It’s $207 million, which is a drop in the bucket to what our hospitals actually need to stay open and to stay funded. We have a serious access issue here in the 3rd Congressional District. It’s not just about cost, but costs are also going through the roof. You look at Congress’ failure to expand the ACA tax credit premium for three more years. Small business owners are seeing their premiums go up from $400 to $1,800 a month. In Congress, I want to expand Medicare to cover vision, dental and hearing, the things that deteriorate at folks age. I’d like to see a public option get passed. People can keep their private insurance if they like it, but getting a public option passed. And I think the first thing that I’d like to do, if Democrats win back the House, H.R. 1, is expanding that ACA tax credit premium for three more years. And I guarantee that impacts a lot of people in this room who rely on the ACA and the healthcare exchange for their insurance.”

Frank

“Congressman Van Orden, your 30-second response.”

Van Orden

“To be clear, I voted to extend the Obamacare subsidies. I’m one of six Republicans that did that. It would be nice to get a little credit here. Yeah, 186,000 people were just removed from the SNAP benefit program. You know why? Because they’re dead. There’s almost 200,000 dead people getting SNAP benefits. 189,000 people were dual enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid. You know what? That’s illegal. And there’s no reason that the medical insurance company, the PBM providers, the brokers, they don’t want to report this because they’re getting your taxpayers’ dollars. That’s called fraud.”

Frank

“Ms. Cooke, your 30-second response.”

Cooke

“Children are going to go hungry in this district on Derrick Van Orden’s watch. And people are going to get more sick in this district because of the things that he voted for.”

Leadholm

“Ms. Cooke, we’ll start our next question with you. And it surrounds taxes, federal spending and the national debt. Federal fiscal policy has a direct impact on affordability and inflation as government taxing and spending competes with consumers for goods and services. What specific changes would you make in federal government taxing and spending policy to address affordability, inflation and the growing national debt? Ms. Cooke, your two-minute answer starts now.”

Cooke

“Well, I think for one, I would not have voted for the One Big Beautiful Bill, which gave billionaires tax breaks and tax credits. I think that that’s, I think that billionaires and corporations have to pay their fair share. I look at a lot of hard-working, middle-class folks here in this room. You know, big corporations and the ultra-wealthy should be paying their fair share of taxes. And that comes back to Social Security and Medicare. I don’t think that we should go to those critical safety net programs to make cuts. I think that we’ve got to strengthen Medicare and Social Security. We’ve seen members of Derrick Van Orden’s party call for cuts to Medicare and Social Security. I think that we’ve got to work to scrap the cap to make sure that people who are higher earners are paying their fair share to make sure that the program remains solvent for years to come.”

Leadholm

“Congressman Van Orden, your two-minute answer.”

Van Orden

“Thank you. Yeah, we’ve seen members of Rebecca Cooke’s party saying that she wants to abolish the Constitution and the presidency. So, I do not associate myself with reducing Medicare and Medicaid. I want to make sure it’s protected completely. Talk about tax. Rebecca Cooke just said, and I’m so glad you said that out loud, you would have voted against what you call the One Big Beautiful Bill. That’s the Working Families Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Here’s what’s in that. No tax on tips for our hard-working servers. No tax on overtime. You want to pick up an extra shift on the shop floor? I don’t think you should be paying taxes on that overtime. No tax on Social Security. 87% of our seniors living on Social Security paid no federal income tax. I don’t think that you should be paying income tax on your Social Security. You built this nation and gave it to us. There’s a 20% permanent small business tax deduction that everybody in this room is going to benefit from and so many other small businesses throughout the state of Wisconsin and the country. You can 100% immediately depreciate capital investments. Like buildings, for instance, if you want to build a new manufacturing facility. You know who can’t depreciate their building? If they want to build a new data center. Rebecca Cooke has worked for two organizations that are responsible for building two data centers in the state of Wisconsin on prime farmland. Guess what? They’d have to pay that whole bill. And I think it’s gross that we’re covering up black dirt for these projects. There’s over 20,000 acres of prime Wisconsin farmland covered by windmills and solar panels. And some of these windmills up in North Dakota are going to be responsible for destroying this driftless region because they have to put in 765 kilovolt transmission lines to run that power to Illinois. And it’s not like we don’t need any more reason to hate the Bears. So, this is the largest tax cut in the history of our country. And Rebecca Cooke is now, again, officially on record saying that she would not have voted for that.”

Leadholm

“Ms. Cooke, your 30-second response.”

Cooke

“No tax on tips and no tax on overtime expires in two years. It is not a permanent solution. I’d make those tax breaks permanent, right? But what is permanent is the tax breaks for billionaires. And I think that I want to make sure that working-class Americans have support in the long term, right? So, I would support something that made those more permanent instead of just something that’s salient within an election year. I do not support data centers. I’ve called for a data center moratorium very clearly, and I’ve never built one.”

Leadholm

“Congressman Van Orden, your 30-second response.”

Van Orden

“There is one candidate on this stage that has been paid tens of thousands of dollars by companies that built data centers in Wisconsin. And it’s Rebecca Cooke. She’s a senior visiting fellow on the Third Way. She also worked for the Wisconsin Tech Council, which explicitly call to not have moratoriums on data centers. We have satellite pictures on RebeccaLies.com, the before and after of this prime farmland being covered up by data centers that Rebecca Cooke literally got paid to help promote.”

Leadholm

“Our next question surrounds tariffs, trade, and supply trains. Congressman Van Orden, you will start. Western Wisconsin’s farmers, food processors and other manufacturers depend on access to international markets to import materials used in their production process and to export their finished products. Under what circumstances do you believe tariffs are an appropriate economic tool? And what safeguards should be in place to protect farmers and other businesses from higher production costs or lost export markets? Congressman Van Orden, your two-minute answer.”

Van Orden

“Thank you. Tariffs are a tool to make sure that we have fair trade throughout the United States. And Canada is not the good guy in the story. China is not the good guy in the story. Mexico is not the good guy in the story. The European Union is not the good guy in the story. And what you’re about to hear is a candidate for federal office defend Canada, Mexico, China and European Union over Wisconsin farmers. The Canadian government has not been adhering to the tenants of the USMCA since they signed on it. They’ve been jamming our farmers and our workers hard. They’ve been exporting cars and other parts from China, importing them into the United States to skip all this stuff out because Canada’s looking out for Canada. And that’s going to stop. When the American farmer can compete on a level playing field, they win every single time. And it’s time to level the playing field. Under the Biden administration, in four years, there were zero new trade deals for ag. I’ll say it again. Under four years of President Biden, there were zero new ag trade deals. Under the Trump administration, there’s been 20 in 19 months. That’s how we get out of this. We trade, but we trade fairly. So that increases our exports. We also have to make sure that countries like Brazil, for instance, who are flooding our market with corn, that they don’t have the ability to do so. How do you do that? You put a tariff on it. We have to make sure that cheap car parts can’t come from Canada because they’re being imported from China into Canada because that destroys our automotive workforce. These tariffs are responsible for building more factories in the United States in a shorter period of time than the history of our entire country. So, do I like tariffs for everything? Absolutely not. But they’re a tool, and they’re also the reason, by the way, that we’ve had the biggest decrease in pharmaceutical costs in 60 years because President Trump was able to leverage tariffs for other countries to make them accept a higher price in Europe so we could get a lower price here in the United States.”

Leadholm

“Ms. Cooke here, two-minute answer.”

Cooke

“So, I grew up on a dairy farm like two miles down the road from here. I have lived a lot of failed policies from many different administrations, people that have put partisanship or D.C. politics over the livelihoods of farmers across this state and across this country. In these tariffs, I’ve talked to people all across the third congressional district. At dairy breakfasts, county fairs, I’ve convened roundtables to talk to farmers explicitly about tariffs. Nobody likes them, right? And the way that they were carried out gave no people time to plan their growing seasons. The impact that reciprocal tariffs have had on our soybean producers, the impact it’s had on our cranberry farmers, and people are getting the squeeze. And then you look at now this trade war with Canada. Farmers don’t want handouts on the back end because of poor decision-making in Washington. They want good marketplaces to be able to sell their goods to the world and to feed the world. We want good relationships with our trade allies and we want good relationships with export partners like China. We don’t want the administration to continue importing beef from Argentina, which undercuts our beef producers. We have seen this war in Iran increase input prices, which we talked about already, from diesel and fertilizer. People are really getting squeezed at every turn, our agricultural communities. And we have Derrick Van Orden to blame in this administration for making it harder for folks to get by. We’ve seen farm bankruptcies increase from 2024 to 2026 under Derrick Van Orden and this administration’s leadership.”

Leadholm

“Congressman Van Orden, your 30-second response.”

Van Orden

“I’m very glad that Rebecca Cooke brought up family farms. One of the primary reasons for family farms closing in the United States of America was the death tax. Because one generation could not afford to pass the farm on to the next generation. In the One Big Beautiful Bill, which Rebecca Cooke explicitly said she would vote against, we got rid of the death tax so one generation can hand the farm off to another generation without having to pay the federal government money on that land. And that’s going to save thousands and thousands of family farms here in the state of Wisconsin.”

Leadholm

“Ms. Cooke, your 30-second response.”

Cooke

“I do not support the death tax. I’m looking at my parents sitting in the front row right here. My dad, who inherited our farm from my grandparents and was able to farm for many years until it was too difficult because of government interference in agriculture, because of low milk prices and competition with larger dairies. So, no, I do not support the death tax at all.”

Frank

“Our next question is on global conflict and goes first to Ms. Cooke. Ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, Europe, and Asia have implications for global trade, supply chains, energy prices, and national security. What role should the United States play in promoting global security while maintaining domestic economic stability?”

Cooke

“I’ve talked about this a few different times throughout this forum. I think one of the first things that I would like to see, and as a member of Congress, is to end this war in Iran, which nobody voted for. We’ve seen so much spending, billions of taxpayer dollars go overseas when they could be invested in things here to put Wisconsin first, to put our communities first. We’re looking at hospital closures here. We’re looking at our public schools flailing. We’re looking at so many difficult things for our Main Street businesses to be able to keep their doors open. So, I’d like to end the war in Iran, which no one voted for. Even if they voted for Derrick Van Orden or for President Trump, they voted for no more foreign forever wars. I do think it’s important that we continue to stand up to bullies like President Putin and that we remain to have a strong presence in Ukraine. So that’s where I stand on these issues.”

Frank

“Congressman Van Orden, your two-minute answer.”

Van Orden

“I am the longest-serving enlisted member of the United States military to ever get elected to Congress in the history of this country. And I have more combat time than any member of Congress in the history of this country. I know about war. I’ve spent my entire adult life either training for war, training others for war, or at war myself. And I do not want our country to be involved in war. But you have to ask yourself, if these radical Muslim mullahs can take our citizens hostage, if they can beat them and torture them, if they can kill thousands of American citizens, if they can hold the entire globe economically hostage by controlling 20% of the petrochemical movement through the Straits of Hormuz, which they have with conventional weapons only, if they can do all that, ask yourself, what would it take Rebecca Cooke to actually go to war with somebody? Because the House Armed Services, of which I’m a member of, is the body that would be declaring war. So, if people can rape, murder, torture and hold us economically hostage, and Rebecca Cooke is unwilling to fight that conflict, then I’d say that is disqualifying to be a member of Congress. Because we have to make decisions we don’t want to make, often times. And this is one of them. Do I want to be in a war with Iran right now? No. I don’t want to be in a war with anybody right now. Is it making it exponentially harder for Republicans to hold the House and the Senate? Yes, it is. But we have to think about our children and grandchildren. We’ve been fighting the war that the radical Muslim mullahs declared on us for 50 years. And I don’t want my grandchildren fighting the same war that I did. I think it’s time for this to stop. We must finish this. And we have to stop thinking in these two-year political cycles and start thinking about the next generation. And that is what I’ve been doing since I got into Congress. And I’ll keep doing it if you choose to send me back to Washington, D.C.”

Frank

“Ms. Cooke, your 30-second response.”

Cooke

“I think there’s a lot of different ways to approach conflict. I believe in taking an approach that is diplomacy first, that is pressing for economic sanctions. If we hadn’t had Elon Musk involved in the White House and taking Doge to USAID, we could have been doing a lot more in Iran. Derrick Van Orden voted for this war six times, right? And I think that we need to take a diplomacy first, an economic sanction perspective first.”

Frank

“Congressman Van Orden, your 30-second response.”

Van Orden

“That’s exactly what we did. That’s exactly what we did. So, we tried diplomacy, tried sanctions, umped them, or upped them again and again and again. And these radical Muslim mullahs don’t respond to that. I could see a long stream of harshly worded emails coming from Rebecca Cooke’s office to Tehran. And how do you think they would respond to that? They only respond to this horrible thing that is war. That’s just a fact. And I know because I’ve lived and worked on five different continents and have multiple combat tours dealing with these people. And Rebecca Cooke just does not.”

Frank

“Our next question is on energy and reliability. It goes first to Congressman Van Orden. While Wisconsin regulates utility rates and major energy infrastructure at the state level, the federal government has authority over interstate transmission and wholesale energy markets. As the demand for energy changes among consumers and businesses alike, what should Congress do to support additional energy generation and transmission capacity in order to maintain reliability and to help keep Western Wisconsin businesses competitive?”

Van Orden

“For decades now, the Democrat Party has been waging a war on fossil fuels. Day one, Biden got into office. He canceled the Keystone pipeline. They don’t want Line 5 to go through. They won’t finish the permitting of the gas plant up in Superior, Wisconsin. So, what they’ve been doing is spending hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars on clean energy. Like the windmills that are in North Dakota, they’re going to have to put 765 kilovolt lines running through the Driftless region, which is where I live. It is the single Paleozoic plateau in the entire continental United States, and it’ll be destroyed by these 765 kilovolt lines. But they have to have these huge ones because they’re generating wind power in North Dakota. So, what we need to do is turn to what works. That’s natural gas. It’s clean burning coal. And most importantly, it’s SMRs. Those are small nuclear reactors. And I’m working diligently right now to get another one placed back in Genoa, Wisconsin, where there was one previously. So, we have to understand, I have yet to see a combine with a solar panel on it or a windmill on it. Have you? Anybody see a chopper out there with a big old windmill? No, that’s being powered by fossil fuels. And the Democrat Party has been waging war on fossil fuels for decades now. And you all know that. You have all seen that turning to the Green New Deal. That’s unsustainable. It’s going to get 20 degrees below zero in the state of Wisconsin this winter, whether or not you want to have a windmill or a solar panel. You have to have base load power, nuclear, clean burning coal, gas. That’s what we need to turn to. We need to stick with it. And then guess what? When it’s locally generated, you don’t need these monstrosities that they’re going to wreck the driftless with. It’s physics.”

Frank

“Ms. Cooke, your two-minute answer.”

Cooke

“I believe in an all-of-the-above energy approach, right? I believe in mixing renewables while keeping our grid reliable. I also support advancements in small modular nuclear, which weans us away from our reliance on fossil fuels. And I’ve built relationships with rural electric cooperatives all across the third congressional district. I’m a very big nerd and the cooperative magazine on a monthly basis of what people need in our region, right? And what sort of energy solutions exist. I think that one of the things that I’m hearing from people as I talk to folks across the third congressional district about their concerns about the 765 line, which I do not support running through the driftless region. I also don’t support data center development. I’ve called for a moratorium to press pause on new construction on data centers. I think we know a lot. I know Ashley Demuth is here from Menomonie. There was a lot going on with the data center development over there. I think we need to learn more about the long-term impacts to rate payers and your utility bills. I think we need to learn more about the long-term impacts to our environment and also to make sure that our local communities are not taken advantage of in the process, right? And so, pressing pause allows us to do that. Derrick Van Orden voted for an 80-billion-dollar tax break for data center companies and his vote with the One Big Beautiful Bill. He’s taken the maximum contribution from Elon Musk and SpaceX. I’m not in the pocket of big tech. I’m looking out for folks like you.”

Frank

“Congressman Van Orden, your 30-second response.”

Van Orden

“You want to talk donors? Rebecca Cooke has been... Rebecca Cooke’s campaign has been donated to personally by every member of the Soros family. RebeccaLies.com. We have all the financial information on there. Again, Rebecca Cooke was paid tens of thousands of dollars to work for two different organizations that are responsible for building two data centers in the state of Wisconsin on prime land. RebeccaLies.com. Look at the before and after and check her personal federal financial documents that she filed. So, she either falsified these documents or she’s lying to you now.”

Frank

“Ms. Cooke, your 30-second response.”

Cooke

“Again, I have never built a data center. The work that I did was in a volunteer role at Wisconsin Tech Council. We’ve had meetings here. You have attended Wisconsin Tech Council meetings. I worked with Third Way to do a working-class voter project to talk with voters about why they are or not voting for Democrats. And so, this is just purely false. I’ve taken the no corporate PAC pledge because I don’t want to be beholden to corporations. I have not also taken any money from APAC. I don’t want to be beholden to special interests in Congress. I want to be beholden to you.”

Leadholm

“Ms. Cooke, we will start with you for our next question and it surrounds higher education and federal funding. Colleges and universities are important to the economic vitality of western Wisconsin. But rising costs and changes to federal financial aid policy can create barriers for students. This is particularly concerning for programs preparing students for essential, often lower-paying professions like social work, early childhood education and criminal justice. What role should the federal government play in keeping higher education accessible and affordable? Ms. Cooke, your two-minute answer starts now.”

Cooke

“Well, I first want to thank CVTC for letting us use your facilities today. This is an excellent technical college that’s a part of the Chippewa Valley. We also have UW-Eau Claire, our four-year university. And I know so many people also opt the course of taking registered apprenticeship programs to participate in the trades. And so, when you think about higher education and funding, I think about my own experience. I was able to go to college with the help of Pell Grants. I think that we need to have more federal funding to be invested into Pell Grants, so more low-income and middle-income young people have the opportunity to go to whatever school they’d like to. I also believe strongly in work-study programs and also thinking about how that builds pipelines into our workforce within our communities. I had a work-study job all four years of college. One thing that I don’t believe in, and that kind of bucks party norms within the Democratic Party, is universal student debt relief. I think that puts a band-aid on a problem that’s going to come back and be a problem in another few years. So, I know that that’s something that some Democrats have put forth. But otherwise, I feel like taxpayers are on the tab for somebody else’s education that they shouldn’t be paying for.”

Leadholm

“Congressman Van Orden, your two-minute answer.”

Van Orden

“Yeah. So, unless Navy SEALs go through the same process as a tradesman, we have apprentice, journeyman and master level. So, I was a tradesman and my trade happened to have been war. We worked so hard to get the workforce Pell Grants through, so that if someone decides to work with their hands, they can do so. These lights aren’t on because someone has a degree in 13th-century French poetry. They’re not. They’re on because someone did get a STEM degree, then they got a master’s degree in electrical engineering. They wrote those plans and handed them to someone that went to trade school. That’s why the plumbing works. That’s why the road is flat. That’s why this glass is in place. That’s why we’re not freezing right now, because we have heat in here, because of HVAC techs. So, we have to invest money in younger people, because that is an actual investment in the United States of America. And here’s something, I don’t know a single Republican that agrees with me. If you’re going to lend someone money to go to college, they shouldn’t be charged interest at all. If you’re truly making an investment in a younger person so that they can become a productive member of the workforce in our society, why in the hell are we charging them interest and driving them into the dirt? So, you can go to trade school now. You can be paid by a company that you work for when you graduate. You can get that job and start at $65,000 a year with zero college debt. Why are we sending kids to these institutions where they’re leaving, some of them without even a degree, and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of student debt when they can get a job that pays $35,000? That doesn’t make any sense to me at all. So, I am an incredibly strong supporter of the trades, that I will continue to be so. And guess what? Nurses are also trades folks. Mrs. Van Orden. She’s a nurse.”

Leadholm

“Ms. Cooke, your 30-second response.”

Cooke

“Talking about the trades, I am grateful to have the endorsement and support of 30 unions across this state and across this region. People that are plumbers and pipe fitters, people that keep our lights on, our electrical workers, people, the laborers that build our roads. And I’m grateful for the work that they do in fighting to make sure that those jobs are still good paying, right? And that when people come out of their registered apprenticeship programs, that they have something to look forward to on the other side. And so, I’m grateful to have their support and I’ll have their back in Congress.”

Leadholm

“Congressman Van Orden, your 30-second response.”

Van Orden

“Yeah. I got no beef with unions. You want to get up in the morning, go to work, support your family, be in a union? You should be able to be in a union. If you want to get up in the morning, go to work, and support your family. I was just with the operating engineers two weeks ago. I mean what I say. If you’re here and you’re going to put an honest day’s work and you want to organize, organize. It should not be prevented. That’s why I voted against the President of the United States as executive or banning public sector unions because I thought that was a bridge too far. It’s a civil liberties issue to me personally. And I’ve got the record to prove it.”

Leadholm

“Congressman Van Orden, we will start with you for the next question and it surrounds affordability of housing and childcare on workforce. Affordability affects not only household budgets, but employers’ ability to attract and retain workers. In particular, the affordability of housing and childcare may determine whether someone is able to take a job or remain in a community. What role, if any, should the federal government play in addressing these barriers to workforce participation? Your two-minute answer starts now.”

Van Orden

“We just passed the Road to Homeownership 2026 Act. People may not know this, but you’re anywhere from $90,000 to $140,000 into a single-family home before you break ground on that. $30,000 of those dollars are from the Green New Deal Things that Rebecca Cooke has insisted go everywhere around the world. So, what this bill does, it reduces the regulations. It allows pre-existing models to be used so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel constantly. But we have to get the ability for younger people to get into homes. And this is an area where we could take some advice on public policy from Rebecca Cooke, because she’s telling everybody she’s a struggling waitress, but she manages to own two pieces of waterfront property. Are anybody out there, any of our servers that are working hard in our taverns, do you own two pieces of waterfront property? The answer is no. The reason Rebecca Cooke can afford that is because she’s a paid political consultant and has been since she got out of college. She’s earned hundreds of thousands of dollars, representing some of the most reprehensible people that you can imagine in politics, including the person that offered free beer if the president was assassinated. So, political consultants can afford two pieces of waterfront property. Our regular servers can’t. RebeccaLies.com. All of this is public information. Look it up because it’s her personal financial documentation that she had to submit to the federal government. As far as, as far as childcare, it’s a very tough subject. It’s very hard. People want to get back into the workforce. After our second daughter was born, we decided it would be better for our family, for Sarah, to stay at home. And she was a nurse. And her earning potential was about four times mine. I was a junior enlisted guy. So, we never had fancy stuff growing up. No jet skis and old used cars and all that stuff. And it was a decision that we made personally. And that’s something that I think each family needs to work on. And decide whether or not they want to get back in the workforce. They want to stay at home. Does the man stay at home? And the woman goes to work. The woman goes to work. You know, it doesn’t matter to me. I think it’s much more of an individual decision. And there is room for help from the federal government, obviously.”

Leadholm

“Ms. Cooke, your two-minute answer.”

Cooke

“Sure. Who here has been to my shop Red’s Mercantile downtown when it was open? Raise your hand. Okay, a good number of people. And have you ever seen me waitress at the Good Wives restaurant in the Eastridge Center? Okay. I am of this community. I’m a sixth-generation Wisconsinite. And I’m very proud of my deep roots here in the Chippewa Valley. Having worked on downtown Eau Claire Inc.’s board. Participating in many chamber events. I am a small business owner, a waitress. That is who I am. That is my background. People in this community know that. I also know what a big issue for a lot of folks in the chamber and downtown businesses our homeless population is for a lot of folks, right? And we have great organizations working on this issue from Jonah to Western Dairyland and the new Day Center that’s been put together in downtown. And I think that we’ve got to focus when we think about housing, what we do with the homeless population in Eau Claire. And I think that it’s important that we bring back services that were lost with the closure of our hospitals. Thinking about root causes of homelessness, from mental health resources, substance abuse facilities, right? To be able to address those root problems. And then as a member of Congress, I’d like to advocate for more federal community block grants to create more mixed income housing so we can get folks off the streets and work to incentivize developers to be able to build those sorts of things. I was just at UW-Eau Claire last night talking to students and also talking about what the trajectory looks like after graduation to home ownership. In Congress, I’d like to incentivize first-time home buyers by offering tax credits, not tax credits to billionaires and the ultra-wealthy, but to people who are just trying to get by here in the Chippewa Valley.”

Leadholm

“Congressman Van Orden, your 30-second response.”

Van Orden

“Once again, you can say whatever you want on this stage and it doesn’t have to be associated with the truth because those tax credits are already in the Work and Family Tax Credit and Jobs Act. If people took the time to read legislation that they compliment on, maybe they wouldn’t put their foot in their mouth. And let’s be clear, only God and your mother get to decide where you’re born. And I moved back to Wisconsin after I served 26 years as a Navy SEAL because I chose to, as an adult, to raise my family here in Wisconsin, because this is the finest place in the entire world. And I wasn’t born into it. I chose to be here.”

Leadholm

“Ms. Cooke, your 30-second response.”

Cooke

“Again, I’m really proud to be a solid member of the Chippewa Valley, having contributed to this community for a number of years, getting to build relationships with people in this room as a small business owner. Many of you have participated in work I’ve done with the Red Letter grant, helping other women on that path to entrepreneurship. And I’m grateful to be a member of the hospitality community here in the Third CD and to serve some of you on a Friday or Saturday night. And I am proud of that work and I’m proud of who I am and I know who I am. I don’t, I think my authenticity really speaks for itself.”

Frank

“Our next question involves infrastructure and federal permitting. It goes first to Ms. Cooke. Businesses depend on infrastructure to move people, products and information. Yet major infrastructure and development projects may take years to authorize through the existing permitting process. What infrastructure investments should Congress prioritize for rural communities like those in western Wisconsin? And where do you believe federal permitting could be streamlined?”

Cooke

“Well, I want to recognize what’s probably on a lot of people’s minds is that we need to fix the damn roads, right, in any way that we can. We need federal resources for some of our biggest infrastructure projects across the Third CD. I’ve met with municipal leaders, people that are on town boards or city councils, and they’re not going to be able to foot the bill for a lot of those improvements themselves. So, it’s going to be important that there are federal resources devoted to making sure that we can repair our roads. Things that I’m excited and interested about stem back to meetings I used to go to about the railway coalition. Scott Rogers is here today. There was an elusive high-speed rail that was supposed to connect the Twin Cities to Eau Claire. That’s something that I would be a big proponent of in connecting our economies. And there were federal resources that Scott Walker turned away and I’d be a proponent of trying to get that high-speed rail finally built.”

Frank

“Congressman Van Orden, your two-minute answer.”

Van Orden

“It’s interesting that Rebecca Cooke would say fix the damn roads. That’s what Tony Evers ran on eight years ago. So, if Tony Evers had eight years to fix the damn road roads and he didn’t, what do you think Rebecca Cooke’s going to do in 80 years of Congress? Nothing. So, what happens is this. Washington, D.C. sends money to Madison. Madison sends money to Madison in Milwaukee. And we’re forgotten here. Not anymore. Not on my watch. I live in a village with less than 192 people in there. It’s 191. You may have guessed that. So, listen, let’s talk about your Red Letter grant. Rebecca Cooke started Red Letter grants and then she got on the WEDC. She gave grant money to a local restaurant here in Eau Claire that she happens to work at. And then one of the owner’s mother donated money to Rebecca Cooke’s campaign. Where I come from, that’s called money laundering. RebeccaLies.com. We have a chart for you to look at that. Under the Democrat administrations, they had something called WOTUS, Waters of the United States. That would have made intermittent streams and literally puddles into navigable waterways, which means that the federal government would be able to go on any one of our farms at any point without any notice and completely destroy that farm. We’re some of the best conservationists here and we started something called these retention ponds. So that when you put nutrients on the field and it rains, the nutrients go into a retention pond. They let it settle. They pull the nutrients out, which lowers the input costs. And then they recycle the water. Guess what? Every single farmer that has these retention ponds, and I spoke to when this WOTUS was going to get signed into law, said that they would get rid of the retention ponds. That means all of those nutrients would go right into the watershed and wind up in the Mississippi River. So, the regulations are what are killing us. That’s why the Road to Housing Act of 2026 is so vitally important. It strips away these regulations so that we can lower the cost. Again, it’s up to $140,000 prior to breaking ground on a house. So, we’re working. We’ve got the largest deregulatory climate in the history of the country to make sure that we can afford stuff and not regulate ourselves into oblivion.”

Frank

“Ms. Cooke, your 30-second response.”

Cooke

“Uh, Derrick Van Orden is lying about the Red Letter grant. I look at people who are board members, people who were past judges of this program, and the work that it’s done to help over 70 small businesses get launched across West Central Wisconsin. I am proud of that work and proud of the integrity of that organization. I will say that I’ve also been working to build relationships with over a hundred local electeds across the third congressional district. We’re rolling out a hundred local electeds in support of my candidacy, Democrats and Republicans, because I want to work with anybody to make sure that our local municipalities have the resources to invest in infrastructure projects and that we’re streamlining them so that they can get them done.”

Frank

“Congressman Van Orden, your 30-second response.”

Van Orden

“RebeccaLies.com. So, with Red Letter grants, she wound up paying herself and her staff more than the grant money she sent out. And that is documented paperwork because they have to file paperwork with the state and federal government for this. I’m not lying about any of this stuff. Go to RebeccaLies.com and you’ll see that Rebecca Cooke paid herself more money from your tax dollars than she gave out in grants. That’s black and white, T’s crossed, I’s dotted.”

Leadholm

“This will be our final question. Please note that each candidate will have up to two minutes to respond and then you won’t get that 30-second rebuttal or response. We’ll start with you, Congressman Van Orden. What is one view or opinion you’ve previously held that has shifted over time and why?”

Van Orden

“I have become progressively more disgusted with the federal government. Yeah, I thought it was bad, but you guys have no idea how bad it is. Over the decades, trillions and trillions of our dollars, taxpayers’ dollars, hard-earned dollars going to fraudsters, going to people that are clearly breaking the law, going to programs that have been detrimental to our society and the world at large. And no one wants to seem to change it. It took me three years to get my first bill signed. And that saved the GI Home Loan Guarantee Program. Three years, the Biden administration spent $16 billion unauthorized by Congress. They were going to bankrupt one of the two best programs that were ever created by the federal government, the GI Bill Program and the GI Home Loan Program. I’m responsible for both of those as the chairman of the Economic Opportunity. It took me three years to get that bill signed and do something called partial claims. So, as opposed to the federal government buying a loan from a veteran, which that’s not a home loan, it’s a home loan guarantee, the average amount of money a veteran was in arrears was $25,000. The average amount of money the VA spent buying that home was $325,000. VA didn’t know how to administer a loan, so they actually contracted back with the bank they just bought it from to service that loan. On what planet does that make sense? So, what we did is if a veteran falls behind on his mortgage and everyone needs a hand up once in a while, 100%, that loan payment goes to the back of the loan and the veteran pays it off. You don’t pay for it and the veteran stays in their home. Now that is common sense, isn’t it? Three years. Because people don’t want to give up their fiefdoms, they don’t want to give up their money, they don’t want to give up their power. I’ve never chased a nickel in my life and I’m not interested in power. I don’t even let my staff call me congressman or sir. They call me Derrick or DVO. But if you choose to send me back to Washington D.C. by voting for me in November, I will continue to work 16-hour days there and 16-hour days here to help our veterans, our farmers, our seniors, our wonderful people that serve in the military.”

Leadholm

“Ms. Cooke, your answer.”

Cooke

“Well, I want to first start by thanking CVTC and the Eau Claire Chamber of Commerce for hosting today’s forum. I appreciate the opportunity for people to see the contrast between the two of us and what we hope to accomplish for people here in the third congressional district. My campaign is focused on lowering costs, combating corruption, bolstering agriculture, supporting small business and working to rebuild an American dream that we can actually grasp. To your question about something that’s changed my perspective over time, that has to do with my perspective on assault rifles. In the past, I’ve talked about banning assault rifles. I think people should have the freedom to own them. I have had an opportunity to visit a gunsmith just south of here in Mondovi, held an assault rifle in my hand and I support that Second Amendment right. But what I also support is making sure that we have universal background checks, so that we have people that are safe gun owners, right, and that they’re not falling in the hands of criminals or people that are harmed themselves or others. And I also support enforcing red flag laws. A red flag goes up when someone is a threat or a harm to themselves or others. But that’s something that’s changed in my time and in running and being able to build more relationships across the third congressional district. So, thank you so much for having me here today. Today is the first day of early voting. We have 14 days to flip this seat from red to blue and I’m excited to push the clock back on the policies of Derrick Van Orden and this administration.”

Leadholm

“We would like to thank Congressman Van Orden, Ms. Cooke, for taking part in this forum, and thank the audience for their respect. This marks the end of the forum.”