The Recombobulation Area is a 21-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning opinion column and online publication founded by Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer.
This article was part of the extended column, “8 Takeaways from the 2026 Election in Wisconsin,” which was first available for paid subscribers on Nov. 7.
Rebecca Cooke is a special candidate. Having an opportunity to tag along with her and her campaign for a day in the 3rd Congressional District really made that all the more clear. In talking to her, she was not just emerging as the right candidate at the right time, in her goals to build a more “durable coalition” for Democrats, I really think she is tapping into something bigger than any one race (read that feature story here).
But the results of this race are undeniably impressive. She defeated Derrick Van Orden by a 6.6% margin.
Cooke outran the top of the ticket in 2024, losing by less than 3% when Trump won by 8%. In 2026, every county in the district shifted to the left, almost all by double-digits. The biggest shift came in Crawford County, where I was with Cooke when she attended a lutefisk dinner in a church basement in a rural part of the district. She went everywhere to meet people where they are in this campaign, and it showed. Crawford County shifted by 17 points from 2024.
Cooke also won in Vernon County and Richland County, each of which Van Orden had won in both of his winning races. She won both La Crosse (+25) and Eau Claire (+26) counties by big margins. She narrowed the margin in Grant County to just 3% after it had gone for Van Orden by 14% just two years ago.
This is a really impressive electoral performance for a very impressive candidate. I’m excited to see what she does in Congress.
Dan Shafer is an independent journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He worked with Civic Media from 2024 to 2026. He’s written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 24 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.
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