Rebecca Cooke on Fighting to Defeat MAGA Congressman in WI

0:00Ben Meiselas:Wisconsin voters are absolutely pissed at Donald Trump and all of the MAGA sycophants in Congress, especially in Wisconsin's third congressional district, where you have this MAGA Republican Congress member, Derek Van Orden, who appears to be more focused on throwing rager parties in his congressional office than actually helping the people. It seems he actually wants to betray the people in his district. This is a real photo right here. per a source. Here's a photo from late July of this like beer keg party in Van Orden's office. They were partying loudly and yelling at the teenage Senate pages.

0:38Ben Meiselas:It's interesting that that's where he wants to spend his time versus actually holding in-person town halls. He does these like fake virtual town halls where they come up with the questions in advance, but people want to know what the hell is really going on because he betrayed and threw the people of Wisconsin under the bus. And it should be noted, unfortunately, Wisconsin went for Trump in 2024. Take a listen to these Wisconsin voters, how they feel. Let's play it. We aren't going to forget these cuts because you hit them after the midterm elections. We're going to make sure everyone in Wisconsin knows that you betrayed us for out-of-state billionaires.

1:19Ben Meiselas:The voters are right there. One of the things that these MAGA Republicans did in getting rid of rural health care, health care in general, gutting all these programs, is they did it right after the midterm so they can try to go back and claim that they're actually helping the people. But the people are not stupid. They know what's going on here. And it's just so interesting because Derek Van Orden had previously said in, I think, one of these virtual fake town halls of his, it's a bright line for me. I will never vote for a budget bill that has Medicaid cuts, especially rural Medicaid cuts here.

1:52Ben Meiselas:Watch what he says. Just because we live in rural areas doesn't mean that high quality health care should be readily accessible to us. I have very, very few hard lines when it comes to these issues that we talk about regularly. One of them is this, that I've been crystal clear with the leadership in the House here. If during this budget reconciliation process, they're going to try to cut rural health care. I am not on board. I will not be on board with a package that does that if anybody is trying to cut any type of rural health care, it's just not going to happen on my watch. Well, it did happen on your watch, and you actually promoted it.

2:35Ben Meiselas:You also promoted getting rid of women from our armed forces. You said, well, I'll talk about that in a second, but you also wanted cuts to the VA. You said to Doug Collins, the VA secretary, when are we going to cut the VA? Here, play this clip. Here's what happened. Mr. Secretary, I had my crack graphics team draw this up so I can explain to some people what's going on. Here it is right there. That's the whole VA. This is the problem with the VA. Okay. This is the increase in bureaucrats. These are the doctors. It's almost a flat line. and then we have an increase with the veterans because of the PAC Act, right?

3:15Ben Meiselas:So when we are going to cut the VA, and I hope you do, sir, this is where you need to make the cut, right there, in this line, right there, sir. Mr. Secretary, if you cut this, then this. Okay, and then he doesn't want women in the armed forces. Here, play this clip. Okay, as far as standards, the standard is the minimum. That is the minimum level of performance that someone will reach or they're not qualified for the job. The NFL does not have a standard for females. If you're a lady and you want to join the NFL, go try out for the team. How many women play in the NFL? Anybody? The answer is zero.

3:55Ben Meiselas:Why is there an NBA and a WNBA? Why? Because they acknowledge biology. so we can have as many whiz bang high tech things available but at the end of the day to win a war you need someone to go in a room and beat someone to death with their hands finally he calls donald trump god let's play it my last question for you before we run out of time because i know you're busy and you're doing other things um with regard to getting all of the identified corruption, all of the identified elements from Doge. They've given you guys a lot to work with. Getting that stuff out of our budget, how close are we?

4:39Ben Meiselas:We are closer than you would think. And we've been working very, very diligently. What we need to do is codify these things because, you know, God forbid we don't have a Republican that follows up Donald Trump, right? And then all of these executive orders are very easy to reverse. And then even just the overall congressional delegation in Wisconsin, just like doesn't like this Van Orden guy. I mean, here's the Democratic Congress member, Mark Pucan. He's kind of a guy, though, gets along with mostly everybody. Watch his interaction with Van Orden here. Let's play this clip. Way that you're not going to have those safeguards.

5:16Ben Meiselas:That's the real problem. Anything else? There he is. Derek Van Orden. You can put that on the news. Was that on me? It's the nicest thing you did to me all day. Hey, Derek. Classy as always, man. We love it. Thank you. Have you lost your mind? Yeah, right. People read this stuff. I saw your drunken tweet at 1.30 in the morning last day. No, I got done with Andy. Oh, I got it. It's from Shepard. It's from Shepard. I don't know where to go, but I encourage you to see the mental health counseling. It's absolutely disgusting. Derek, why don't you debate me? Why are you so afraid to debate anyone? Here, we can do this to the media.

5:51Ben Meiselas:Why don't you want to debate the big, beautiful thing? So Mark Pobin has never had a job in his entire life other than politics, and he doesn't understand it. I've owned a small business for 37 years. Tony, you've owned a small business. That's a little work, isn't it? And he fundles over$500 ,000 a year of his campaign money to buy signs from his company. Okay, look that up. Oh, my God. Are you drinking right now, Derek? That's the real question. All right. When you look at Derek Van Orta, this bag of Republican congressmen from Wisconsin's third, is everything that's wrong with Washington, D.C., right?

6:25Ben Meiselas:Let's bring in Rebecca Cook right now. Rebecca grew up in a dairy farm. She ran a small business. She's been in Wisconsin pretty much her entire life. You're running for Wisconsin's third congressional district. What's going on? I showed you those clips there at the asset. What is going on with this Van Orden guy? Yeah, look, I mean, it's no surprise to folks in this district. He really brings a laundry list to the job from his participation also in the insurrection to, you know, his decorum and the votes that he has taken in Congress are just so opposite of our values here in Wisconsin 3. And, you know, it's been really frustrating.

7:06And that's part of why I stepped up to run is to push back on him, hold his feet to the fire and this administration accountable for the things that he's doing that are so opposite of our values here in the region.

7:18Ben Meiselas:So he refuses to hold in-person town halls. He does these virtual town halls where they, I guess, pick the questions in advance. And as I showed at the outset, he basically lies about what his positions are, even in those kind of artificial settings. You held a town hall recently with Bernie Sanders. It was in a barn. It was a community town hall. What are you hearing from community members right now? What are their concerns and what are you hearing in general? Yeah, you know, we've been talking to folks all across the district all summer from, you know, dairy breakfast to county fairs, really trying to meet voters where they're at.

7:53I was grateful for Senator Sanders to come to rural Vernon County this last weekend to host a town hall with me to ask people what's really keeping them up at night. And I've been hearing from a lot of folks their concerns around health care, just what access looks like and affordability. We've already had two major hospitals close in this district in the last couple of years in my hometown and in Eau Claire. So the repercussions from this bill are going to continue to be really great in a region that is already reeling from cuts to health care. Around 30 ,000 people are going to be cut from Medicaid.

8:30You know, when you think about Van Orden, he lost by or he won, excuse me, by 11 ,000 votes. I think that those 30 ,000 people are going to have something to say when 2026 rolls around.

8:43Ben Meiselas:Yeah. So you ran against him in the last election. It was super close. Trump ended Trump ended up winning. Van Orden ended up winning. When you're out there right now, do you see the tide shifting? I mean, we covered in the past day or so in Iowa, in a ruby red district, the Senate District 1 flipping a 20 point swing. Democrats are overperforming now 10 to 15 points in the special election. So do you think the tide is shifting? Absolutely. I mean, I think that you can just see it in the way that people have been active since the last election. I mean, folks are protesting in our communities like at least once a week, right, all across this district and showing up in big numbers.

9:28And they're doing that on top of, you know, caring for their aging parents or making sure that their kids are getting off to soccer practice. They're finding the extra time to really exercise their voices. And so, you know, I certainly think that we're going to see the tides turn when it comes to 2026. But it's also important, I think, for us to have a vision of what not just why, you know, the other side is bad, why all of these cuts, why these things are hurting folks. But what are the opportunities that exist, I think, for us to be able to to build back our big tent? And I spend a lot of time going to rural communities that I think have often been overlooked by the Democratic Party to make sure that people know that, you know, no matter where they live, whatever zip code that they're in, that we're going to be showing up and talking to them.

10:15Ben Meiselas:You know, one of the theses or theses that I have here at the Midas Touch Network is, you know, Americans are sick and tired of these kind of culture war issues being spread by MAGA, whether they're talking about Sidney Sweeney's jeans or Cracker Barrel or whatever the thing is when there are real things that are impacting America. And I think people are waking up to say, oh, these tools are just used to distract and divide. What are you going to be? I think that's been the commonality in these special elections where you've had MAGA's running the MAGA playbook on culture war divisions. They're talking about bathrooms and people are like, I'm going to lose my health care.

10:57Ben Meiselas:I don't have a job. Exactly. I can't afford things. So talk to us about that. Like what's what? Talk to us about the message of what you're going to do for people, as you say, not just what you're opposing. What are you going to do? So a couple of things. So I was the 2024 nominee in this district last cycle. We outperformed every Democrat on the ticket, including Harris by 9000 votes and Senator Tammy Baldwin by 5000 votes. And it's because we were talking about the things that we knew were keeping people up at night. Right. We were focused on talking about the economy. We were talking about securing the border and not running away from that topic or issue.

11:31And I think that that was a big difference. We're still talking about lowering costs. I think that's the things that I hear from folks most is that they're concerned about how they're going to make their rent, how they're going to pay or pay their mortgage to get groceries, fill up with a gas pump, and even have a little bit of money left over. So my campaign is really focused on talking about lowering costs. Health care really remains at the top of my platform. One of the things that I'm campaigning heavily on that also coincides with Senator Sander is expanding Medicare to cover vision, dental, and hearing, the things that deteriorate as folks age.

12:05my parents are you know retired farmers and they take a once a year trip down to mexico that's their vacation but while they're there they get their dental work done because it's cheaper to do there than it is in our own country i'm talking a lot about um how how we're going to take on um big pharma um my dad was diagnosed with uh prostate cancer while i've been running for congress and for when he went to the walgreens for the first time it was an 1800 supply for like one month of one drug,$1 ,300 for another one month supply of another drug. So he ended up getting his drugs through Mark Cuban's Cost Plus.

12:42But that's just, I mean, just too damn expensive. And then you've got people in Congress that are in bed with all these corporate special interests. And that's why I've taken the North Corporate PAC pledge. So I think, you know, lowering costs, protecting our agricultural heritage, combating corruption. Those are some of the things that I'm running on, because I know that that's what I'm hearing from people. Like, I take my cues from the folks that I'm meeting, you know, out on the campaign trail, at town halls, at gatherings in our communities, and it's not the polls that are going to tell me that.

13:15It's, in fact, I think our polls are wrong a lot. I mean, you look at what, you know, 2024 looked like, and people were not deeply connected with what regular folks were worried about and what regular people were going through, and I think that that's why my campaign has been successful in the past and the kind of campaign that we're running is very authentic and really trying to meet people's needs.

13:39Ben Meiselas:Where can people find out more about the campaign and any kind of closing message you want to have to nearly 6 million subscribers? Yeah, you can check out our campaign at cookforwisconsin.com. There's a link. Would love to have your financial support, but also check out our – we're on Facebook. Instagram, Twitter, or X, or whatever you want to call that now, if you want to share that message. But I think the last thing I'd like to say is that I think we need more working class voices to represent us in Congress that have lived failed policy and are going to fight like how to build back the middle class.

14:14And I'm your candidate in that respect.

14:17Ben Meiselas:Thanks for joining us. Rebecca, could come back, keep us posted on the campaign, and we'd love to have you back as a guest. Great. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million subscribers.