Demo­c­rat Rebec­ca Cooke will race to unseat Wis­con­sin Repub­li­can Der­rick Van Orden

In a pri­ma­ry con­test Tues­day, Wis­con­sin Demo­c­rat state Rep. Kat­ri­na Shank­land was defeat­ed by local busi­ness own­er Rebec­ca Cooke, set­ting up a race to unseat Repub­li­can Rep. Der­rick Van Orden in Novem­ber. Van Orden, a for­mer Navy SEAL, nar­row­ly defeat­ed Demo­c­rat state Sen. Brad Pfaff to flip the seat for the GOP last year after long­time Demo­c­rat incum­bent Ron Kind chose not to seek reelec­tion. Pfaff has decid­ed not to chal­lenge Van Orden in 2024.Prior to Van Orden win­ning the seat in 2022, Wis­con­sin’s 3rd Dis­trict was rep­re­sent­ed by Kind for more than two decades. The race for the Democ­rats even­tu­al­ly turned ugly between can­di­dates Cooke and Shank­land. The Wis­con­sin Exam­in­er report­ed that in the final days of the race, the elec­tion became “more com­bat­ive as out­side super PACs have inject­ed mon­ey into the race on behalf of Cooke, while Shank­land cries foul and touts her expe­ri­ence as a legislator.“2024 ELE …