U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden outraised his Democratic challenger, Rebecca Cooke, but got swamped by advertising from independent political groups like Super PACs.

By Peter Cameron, THE BADGER PROJECT

Derrick Van Orden won reelection to the 3rd Congressional District, with a margin of about 11,000 votes, or about 2.7%.

He also won the direct fundraising game. The Republican from Prairie du Chien reported raising and spending more than $7.2 million, according to mandatory filings with the Federal Election Commission. But the race was uncommonly close in this area, as incumbents often raise much more than their challengers. Van Orden’s Democratic opponent, Rebecca Cooke, reported raising and spending more than $6.3 million.

Most of that money gets spent on political messaging in the form of ads on TV and radio, online and through the mail.

And donations made directly to political candidates are capped by law. The maximum a person could give a candidate for federal office in the 2024 election cycle was $6,600.

But political spending can also be done independently of the political campaigns by organizations like super PACs, which can raise and spend unlimited amounts. Groups aligned with or run by Democrats, like their House Majority PAC and the progressive VoteVets PAC, spent nearly $7.4 million in Wisconsin’s 3rd attacking Van Orden with ads and promoting Cooke, according to filings with the FEC.

Groups aligned with Van Orden reported spending about $770,000 attacking Cooke and supporting him.

That’s a ratio of nearly 10 to 1.

“Outside spending on all House races (nationally) was very evenly split between liberals and conservatives this cycle, so clearly liberal groups saw this specific race as a higher priority than conservative ones,” said Andrew Mayersohn, a researcher for Open Secrets, a government transparency group that tracks money in politics.

In 2022, national Democrats and their Super PACs spent very little supporting the Democratic candidate against Van Orden, thinking the district uncompetitive, noted Joseph Heim, a political science professor emeritus at UW-La Crosse. Without much outside help, that candidate, state Sen. Brad Pfaff, surprised many by keeping the race relatively close, losing by about 3.7%.

This year, national Democrats “did not want to be in a similar situation,” Heim said.

“They may have seen a chance to beat an incumbent this time, along with the possibility of taking the House from Republicans,” he continued. 

All that spending resulted in Democrats closing the cap with Van Orden by about one percentage point in a strong year for the top of the Republican ticket. Former and future President Donald Trump won the district by more than seven points. He will not be on the ballot the next time Van Orden must seek reelection, in 2026.

Van Orden was seen by many as vulnerable, experts say, and may continue to be. He ran well behind Trump in the district, but also behind the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Eric Hovde there, who lost his statewide race, but won the 3rd by about four percentage points.

The Badger Project is a nonpartisan, citizen-supported journalism nonprofit in Wisconsin.