EAU CLAIRE, Wis. – The owner of an Eau Claire home decor and froufrou shop, Rebecca Cooke, declared herself a candidate again for the Democratic nomination for Congress. Cooke lost the party’s 2022 nomination for western Wisconsin’sWI-3 seat to Brad Pfaff of LaCrosse, who went on lose narrowly to Republican DerrickVan Orden. Cooke called Van Orden “a vulnerable incumbent.” She said Washington is pawn of. big-money interests. In declaring, Cooke cited her experience growing up on a farm farm. Her family, she said, had to sell its Holstein herd in the early 2000s because of low milk prices and factory farms. “I’ve been in the trenches,” she said. “I’ve really experienced failed policy.” Cooke, age 33, worked her way through college. She served on the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation as an appointee of Governor Tony Evers. He founded her Eau Claire shop, Red’s Mercantile, in 2016. She also founded a nonprofit that supports new women business owners with start-up capital and counsel. The organization has helped launch 23 businesses, according to Cooke.
Cooke. If elected, she would be the first woman in Congress from WI-3.