Cooke Welcomes Eau Claire Residents to New Campaign Office

Rebecca Cooke invited Chippewa Valley residents to visit her new Eau Claire campaign office over the weekend.

Cooke recently opened the new campaign headquarters on Water Street in Eau Claire, hoping its location will make it easy for area residents to access anytime. She also highlighted its proximity to the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire specifically, saying students are going to be pivotal in deciding the result of the midterm elections.

Cooke won the Democratic nomination for the seat in the 2024 election, but fell short in the general election against incumbent Republican Congressman Derrick Van Orden. In a drastically different political environment this time around Cooke believes she has more support from across the district, saying “I think that there’s a lot of people, especially in our agricultural communities that, you know, I think because of what’s happened with some of the reciprocal tariffs and because of a lack of a passage of the farm bill, I think there’s a lot of folks in rural communities who are more interested in my campaign maybe than before.”

She’ll face off with Eau Claire City Council President Emily Berge and Rodney Rave in the Democratic primary this time around, with the winner seeking to flip control of Wisconsin’s Third Congressional District back to the Democratic party. Berge announced in December that she would not seek reelection as City Council President this Spring in order to focus on her congressional campaign.

Saturday’s event also acted as a canvassing launch for volunteers in support of Judge Chris Taylor’s campaign for Wisconsin Supreme Court. The liberal-backed 4th District Court of Appeals Judge will face off with conservative-backed 2nd District Court of Appeals Judge Maria Lazar in the April 7th election.