U.S. House race · November 3, 2026
U.S. Representative, Wisconsin District 3
Represents the district in the U.S. House of Representatives, which writes federal laws, approves the federal budget and taxes, and oversees the executive branch.
2-year term. The district covers western and southwestern Wisconsin, including the Driftless Area, with counties such as La Crosse, Eau Claire, Portage, Grant, Dunn, Wood, Pierce and Monroe and cities including Eau Claire, La Crosse and Stevens Point. The race is a rematch of 2024, when Van Orden defeated Cooke 51.3% to 48.6%. Van Orden was unopposed in the Aug. 11, 2026 Republican primary, and Cooke defeated Emily Berge in the Democratic primary with about 60% of the vote. No write-in candidates were identified.
The candidates
Listed alphabetically by last name.
Rebecca Cooke
Founder, Red Letter Grant; restaurant serverRebecca Cooke is a Democrat from the Eau Claire area, a former small business owner and founder of a nonprofit that gives grants to women entrepreneurs, and the party's 2024 nominee for the seat. Her campaign centers on lowering costs, health care and ethics rules for Congress.
Alexander Valiensi Kent
Author; background in social workAlexander Valiensi Kent is an independent candidate from La Crosse with a background in social work and philosophy and the author of a 2024 book on what he calls voter-directed democracy. He says his campaign takes no money and that he would vote as verified voters direct on each issue.
Derrick Van Orden
U.S. Representative, Wisconsin District 3Derrick Van Orden is a Republican from Prairie du Chien and a retired Navy SEAL senior chief who has represented the 3rd District since 2023. His campaign centers on the 2025 tax cuts, border enforcement, veterans and agriculture, and on conditions he says data centers must meet.
Rustin Provance
Certified nursing assistantRustin Provance is an independent candidate and certified nursing assistant who also filed for this seat in 2022 and 2024 but withdrew both times. In a 2024 candidate survey he said he would serve only one term and called for ending the Federal Reserve and halting federal spending until the country is debt-free.
Compare on the issues
Summaries of each candidate's stated positions. See each profile for sources and details.
| Issue | Rebecca Cooke Democratic | Alexander Valiensi Kent Independent | Derrick Van Orden Republican | Rustin Provance Independent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Economy & Jobs | Supports raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, passing the PRO Act and ending tariffs she says have cut off agricultural markets. | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | Said in 2024 that he supports ending the Federal Reserve. |
| Elections & Democracy | Supports banning stock trading by members of Congress and the White House, ending Citizens United and setting term limits for members of Congress. | Supports an online system, which he calls VoterDirectedNetwork.com, in which verified voters cast yes-or-no votes on all issues and elected officials carry out the results. Says political parties concentrate power away from voters and are not part of the U.S. Constitution. | No public position found yet | No public position found yet |
| Energy & Environment | Supports a federal moratorium on new data centers to give communities time to study the effects on utility rates, the environment and jobs. | No public position found yet | Says data centers must have local buy-in, cannot be built on farmland, must cause zero increase in household electric rates and must use closed-loop cooling. | No public position found yet |
| Health Care | Supports capping out-of-pocket costs for insulin, asthma inhalers and cancer drugs at $30 a month, expanding Medicare to cover vision, dental and hearing, and reversing Medicaid and Affordable Care Act cuts. | No public position found yet | Says he would protect people with preexisting conditions when the Affordable Care Act is fully repealed and replaced with a more competitive system, and points to funding for BadgerCare and rural hospitals. | No public position found yet |
| Immigration | Supports a secure border and a pathway to citizenship for workers without criminal records, and calls the bipartisan Dignity Act a good first step. | No public position found yet | Supports fully funding ICE and CBP and deporting immigrants in the country illegally who commit crimes; also supports H-2A guest-worker changes in the Agricultural Workforce Reform Act of 2025 to help farms hire workers. | No public position found yet |
| Taxes | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | Supported the 2025 reconciliation law's tax provisions, which he calls the Working Families Tax Cuts, saying they let families keep more of their money. | Said in 2024 that he opposes what he calls illegal taxation and would slow or halt federal spending until the country is debt-free. |
| Agriculture | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | Serves on the House Agriculture Committee and says he passed the Dairy Business Innovation Act and championed the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, which became law. | No public position found yet |
| Foreign Policy | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | No public position found yet | Said in 2024 that he wants to end what he called unnecessary wars. |