Rebecca Cooke, the Democrat challenging Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden in Wisconsin’s Third District, has built her campaign on being “somewhere in the middle.” But her endorsement of New York City socialist mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani raises sharp questions about that image and her political alignment.
During a La Crosse County Democrats’ meeting on Monday, a potential voter asked Cooke who she “would be supporting for mayor” if she lived in New York City. Cooke replied, “Mamdani,” earning applause from the room. Mamdani has campaigned on policies such as free buses, city-owned grocery stores, and freezing rent. He has also defended the anti-Semitic slogan “globalize the intifada.”
Cooke, who has already lost twice in the district that backed President Donald Trump by seven points in 2024, previously centered her campaigns on moderation. In a September 2024 ad filmed on her family dairy farm, she declared, “It seems like everyone in Washington is either too far left or too far right. I’m Rebecca Cooke, and like most folks in Wisconsin, I’m somewhere in the middle.”
Her record, however, suggests otherwise. In 2021 and 2022, she served on the steering committee for Opportunity Wisconsin, an alias of the George Soros-backed North Fund, a dark money group in Washington, D.C. Just two months before endorsing Mamdani, Cooke appeared in a Welcome PAC video again claiming there is “too much chaos and division in D.C.”
Her endorsement of a socialist candidate while campaigning as a centrist has left critics questioning her authenticity. By backing Mamdani, Cooke ties herself to the far-left fringe.
