READSTOWN, Wis. (AP) — The way Derrick Van Orden sees it, any Republicans in the U.S. House who distance themselves from President Donald Trump in this year's midterm election aren't just being foolish, they're being disloyal.
That’s why Van Orden, a two-term incumbent from western Wisconsin fighting to keep his seat in November in a swing district Trump carried three times, is embracing the president.
It’s a risky gambit given fears among Republicans
that Trump’s sagging polling numbers, the unpopular Iran war and economic concerns will drag them down. But it reflects a calculation by Van Orden, a former Navy SEAL who embodies the president's confrontational politics, that motivating the conservative base is still the best plan as long as Trump remains the party’s undisputed leader.
“There’s something that’s sorely lacking in this political business and it’s loyalty," Van Orden told The Associated Press before flying to Dallas to appear at Trump's midterm convention this week. "I think we’d be a lot better off if we were more loyal to our fellow Americans to begin with.”
Van Orden faces Democrat Rebecca Cooke, a political activist who grew up on a dairy farm and works part time as a restaurant server. It’s a rematch of a race that Van Orden won by less than 3 percentage points two years ago.
Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District is one of a dwindling number of competitive U.S. House races that could be pivotal to Democrats' hopes of recapturing control of Congress.
The V-shaped district is bordered by the Mississippi River and Minnesota to the west and Illinois to the south. It historically has been supportive of moderates such as Democrat Ron Kind, who held the seat for 26 years before retiring in 2022. Before him, a moderate Republican represented the district for 16 years.
Democrat Barack Obama won the district twice in his White House races. Trump won it three times on his way to narrowly carrying Wisconsin in 2016 and 2024 and losing the state in 2020.
U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who has had his share of slim victories over the years, has called it “a bellwether district in a bellwether state.”
Cooke and Van Orden have been crisscrossing the district and they both ended up at the same place for a Labor Day parade, in the tiny village of Readstown. It's in the rolling hills of the Driftless Area and is home to fewer than 500 people.
Cooke told the AP before walking in the parade that she believes voters this year are “looking for something fresh and something different. I think people are very tired of politics as usual.”
Nancy Deckert, a 75-year-old retired post office worker in Readstown, is just the type of voter Cooke is counting on.
“I think a lot of people are fed up with the mess we’re in right now and a change is what we need,” Deckert said at the parade.
Van Orden rode his 2021 Harley-Davidson motorcycle along the parade route before parking outside the Shovelheads Corner Bar.
The bar's owner, John Collett, said he is voting for Van Orden.
“It’s popular to hate America right now, and that’s unfortunate,” said Collett, who called himself “ultra MAGA,” a reference to Trump's “Make America Great Again” movement. Collett said Van Orden is “fighting for the American people. He’s fighting for what’s right.”
Van Orden, who underperformed Trump in 2024, said he is confident that voters like Collett will stick with him.
“Cooke knows that she needs to have people who voted for Trump vote for her,” Van Orden said, “and that just ain’t happening.”
Van Orden voted with Trump nearly 100% of the time in 2025, and Trump named Van Orden as one of several House Republicans he promised to back “100% all the way to November.” America PAC, connected to tech titan Elon Musk, has spent about $10,000 this month for Van Orden, Federal Election Commission documents show.
Trump's only visit to Wisconsin so far in his second term was to Van Orden's district. Top administration members have come to campaign with Van Orden, including Trump's health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., FBI Director Kash Patel and Dr. Mehmet Oz, who leads the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Cooke said it was a “big mistake” for Van Orden to tie himself so closely to Trump in a state where only about 4 in 10 voters approve of Trump’s performance, based on an August poll conducted by the Marquette University Law School.
Van Orden said he does not have any second thoughts about it.
“I’ve done everything I possibly can to help the people here in the 3rd (District) and to help Wisconsinites and help Americans,” Van Orden said. “And if people in the 3rd Congressional District decide they want to have somebody else who is a rampant socialist to represent them, that’s up to them.”
Van Orden spoke on Wednesday at the Republican convention, which was billed as “Trump-a-Palooza.” Van Orden promoted tax cuts and federal spending on rural healthcare, a big issue in a district where the largest city is only about 72,000 people.
The congressman attended the Jan. 6, 2021, rally before a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. He has had a series of high-profile incidents and is known for exchanging sometimes profanity-laden messages with liberal U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., and others over social media. This year, Van Orden has drawn heat for a series of artificial intelligence-generated videos that show faked images of Cooke saying things she did not actually say. Van Orden has defended them as satire.
“I’m super easy to demonize because I am very aggressive on social media,” Van Orden said. But he said he does it because of death threats made against him and his family.
“When you push back on these folks they stop and when you let them go they get emboldened,” he said. “I’m not getting pushed around by anybody.”
Cooke lost to Van Orden by just over 11,000 votes two years ago while performing better than Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin.
The environment is “really different” this year, Cooke said, and that will put her over the top.
“People are really frustrated and disappointed with the Trump administration and the things that they were promised," she said.
Cooke, who formerly owned a small business and ran a nonprofit aimed at helping women-owned businesses, is trying to pitch herself as a big tent Democratic populist. But Van Orden points to her work as a consultant raising money for Democrats across the country as far back as 2012, saying she will be beholden to the party establishment.
She is endorsed by a broad coalition including the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, more moderate groups like the House Blue Dog PAC and progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. He campaigned with Cooke in the district last year, giving her the blessing of the party's progressive wing while also helping to fend off Van Orden's attack that she's the “anointed” candidate of the Democratic Washington establishment.
Van Orden, in a campaign ad, is also going after Cooke for saying if she lived in New York City she would have supported democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani for mayor. In that same ad, Van Orden holds a firearm, displays a Bible and says, “I fought extremists overseas as a Navy SEAL, but now they are here.”
Dean Young, a 75-year-old former teacher and milk truck driver who lives in a rural area near Readstown, called the ad “unbelievable."
“People are getting angry,” Young said from a lawn chair along the parade route, a dog in his lap. “They’re finally starting to suffer. I think that’s going to lead to some change.”
