Republican Derrick Van Orden defends US House seat in Wisconsin’s 3rd District

Republican Derrick Van Orden has retained his US House seat in Wisconsin’s 3rd District, which includes La Crosse County.

With most ballots counted, Van Orden was up on Democrat Rebecca Cooke by about 2.8% or just over 11,000 votes.

In La Crosse County, Cooke beat Van Orden by nearly 13% — 40,250 to 31,052.

This was thought to be one of two competitve US House races in Wisconsin.

In 2022, Van Orden beat Brad Pfaff by 11,766 votes. Cooke had run in that election, too, but lost in a four-way primary to Pfaff by 7.8%.

Unlike 2022, Democrats had invested in flipping the 3rd District to help take back control of the US House.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Van Orden had an overall fundraising advantage, despite a massive fundraising haul from Cooke. Van Orden raised $6.6 million this cycle compared to $5.3 million from Cooke, according to Federal Election Commission reports from Oct. 16. But Democratic groups spent about $12.3 million advertising around the district compared to about $7.3 million from Republicans.