Democrat Rebecca Cooke defeated incumbent Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) on Tuesday, flipping Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District in a rematch of the closely contested 2024 election.
The Associated Press called the race for Cooke at 12:48 a.m. She received 52.4% of the vote to Van Orden’s 45.8%, with 91% of ballots counted.
The race took place in a competitive western Wisconsin district that has shifted between the parties in recent elections. While Republicans carried the district in 2024 and 2022, Democratic candidates have remained competitive in congressional races.
President Donald Trump won the district in 2024 by approximately 7.3 percentage points, receiving 52.8% of the vote to then-Vice President Kamala Harris’s 45.5%. Van Orden, however, defeated Cooke by just 2.7 points that year, winning 51.3% to 48.6%. The gap between Trump’s presidential margin and Van Orden’s House victory underscored the district’s split-ticket voting and the incumbent’s narrower advantage in his own race.
The district was similarly competitive in 2020, when President Joe Biden won 46.7% of the vote to Trump’s 51.4%, giving Trump a 4.7-point advantage. Democratic Rep. Ron Kind nevertheless defeated Van Orden that year, winning 51.3% to 48.6%. Kind, who represented the district for 26 years, did not seek reelection in 2022, when Van Orden won the open seat.
The district backed President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 before voting for Trump in 2016, 2020, and 2024.
Van Orden, a retired Navy SEAL, had Trump’s endorsement. Cooke, a small-business owner and founder of a nonprofit group, was making her second bid for the seat after her narrow loss in 2024.
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The contest is part of the broader fight for control of the House, where both parties are competing for the seats needed to secure a majority.
The general election also included independent candidates Alexander Valiensi Kent and Rustin Provance.