Wisconsin Democrat Rebecca Cooke is pitching herself as a political outsider as she seeks a rematch against Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI), after losing to him by 2.7 points in 2024, but records show she spent years doing paid political fundraising and consulting work before running for Congress.
When contrasting her background with then-primary opponent state Rep. Katrina Shankland, who has served in the Wisconsin Legislature since 2013, Cooke told the Wisconsin Examiner.
“I think my background and profile is really suited to connect with swing, moderate and independent voters,” Cooke said. “You know, I don’t come from a career background in politics, and I feel like there’s a lot of people in our district that want to have a representative that has lived experiences that they can connect to,.I think career politicians make folks a little bit more leery.”
She has also remarked:
You don’t see a lot of folks like me running for Congress. You see a lot of people, usually that are wealthy or are elitists or a little bit out of touch with working class folks, maybe, and it’s because the number one thing that people look at when they’re working to recruit candidates to run for Congress is how much money can we raise?
And I think it’s so important that we change our campaign finance laws so that there’s more people with my type of background, stepping up to run for offices at this level. I know I don’t have a background in politics, being a career politician, but I do have a background I think that’s really rooted in my community, that I think connects with everyday folks in this district, growing up on a dairy farm, running a small business for a number of years, running a nonprofit organization, waitressing three nights a week, and I think there’s value and dignity in that type of work.
Cooke further wrote in an X post, “My background is rooted in agriculture, small business and helping other women entrepreneurs. I also waitress at night while I run for Congress. My lived experiences are what connect with everyday voters. Let’s flip this seat and send a voice for working families to Congress.”
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel previously reported that Cooke worked as a professional fundraiser before launching her first congressional campaign, serving as finance director for congressional races in Minnesota, Michigan, Colorado, and California, beginning in late 2012. Her own Cooke Strategy website described her as “The founding principal of Cooke Strategy, a Democratic political and fundraising consulting firm,” and said she raised $3.7 million for Rep. Raul Ruiz of California, “helping to cement a 2014 win in one of the toughest cycles for Democrats.”
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Cooke registered Cooke Strategy LLC in 2015. The outlet reported that Cooke and her firm were paid more than $190,000 by a dozen committees and campaigns, and that between 2012 and 2014, Cooke was paid $77,543 in salary and consulting fees and another $10,699 in expenses for work involving Democrat candidates Jim Graves, Joe Miklosi, Syed Taj, and Rep. Raul Ruiz.
After forming Cooke Strategy, Cooke worked for five federal candidates, two state candidates, and a leadership political action committee, according to the report. Those included former state Rep. Dana Wachs, a Democrat who lost his 2018 gubernatorial bid; Appeals Court Judge Joanne Kloppenburg, who ran unsuccessfully for the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2016; and Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson, who lost his 2016 congressional bid. The Journal Sentinel reported that between 2015 and 2021, Cooke Strategy was paid $67,191 by federal candidates and committees and $37,148 by state candidates.
Cooke campaign manager Alex Obolensky told the Journal Sentinel in 2024 that Cooke “spent her early 20s” working on political campaigns, though the paper noted the work continued into her 30s. Obolensky said that after Cooke moved back to Wisconsin in 2015, she helped political candidates raise money or launch campaigns “from time to time” while building her small business and nonprofit. “She has worked in politics but she is not a career politician,” Obolensky said.
Cooke also launched Red Letter Grant, a non-profit aimed at supporting women-owned businesses, while simultaneously operating Red’s Mercantile, a retail business that helped fund the grant.
She claimed she closed Red’s Mercantile in 2022 because of the “difficulty of competing with cheap, foreign-made goods,” despite explicitly saying on the store’s Instagram page that she closed the business because she ran for Congress and lost. In promotional videos, Cooke described a model where a portion of sales from her store funded the nonprofit, creating overlap between her business and charitable efforts.
Previously unreported financial records reviewed by Breitbart News show that between 2021 and 2023, Cooke received more in total compensation from Red Letter Grant than the organization awarded in grants to new businesses. The total pay for Cooke from Red Letter Grant was $56,830.37 ($21,653.37 in 2021, and $18,000 in 2022, $17,177 in 2023). Meanwhile the total money received by businesses from the grants was $54,000 ($16,000 in 2021, $16,000 in 2022, $22,000 in 2023). Publicly announced grant awards include The Good Wives restaurant. Cooke reported earning $18,000 in income tied to Red Letter Grant and has allegedly continued working at the establishment as a server.
Cooke served in 2021 and 2022 on the steering committee for Opportunity Wisconsin, which describes itself as a “coalition of Wisconsin residents fighting for an economy that works for all Wisconsinites, not just the wealthy few,” but is one of several aliases used by the North Fund, a Washington, D.C.-based dark money group backed by George Soros’s Open Society Policy Center and managed by Arabella Advisors, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
RNC spokesman Hunter Lovell exclusively told Breitbart News, “Radical Socialist Rebecca Cooke’s entire campaign image is based on a lie. In reality, she’s a far-left political activist and snake oil saleswoman making shady deals to line her own pockets. Her history raises serious questions about her credibility and whether she can be trusted with Wisconsin voters.”
Cooke’s campaign did not respond to Breitbart News’s request for comment.
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