Democrat SMACKS DOWN Republican After Ridiculous AI Ad
Audio Brief
Show transcript
In this conversation, host Tommy Vietor interviews Democratic candidate Rebecca Cooke about her working-class strategy to unseat Republican incumbent Derrick Van Orden in Wisconsin’s agricultural third congressional district.
There are four key takeaways from this discussion. First, global trade wars and foreign conflicts are severely squeezing rural pocketbooks. Second, bridging progressive and moderate factions requires an anti-establishment, pro-worker focus. Third, winning back disillusioned Trump voters demands a welcoming, non-judgmental approach. Fourth, working-class authenticity and radical transparency can effectively disarm incumbent smear campaigns.
Rural communities are facing severe economic pressures tied directly to national and global policy decisions. Cooke notes that the war in Iran is spiking diesel and fertilizer costs, while a trade war with Canada and reciprocal tariffs are hammering local soybean and cranberry producers. Compounding these issues, the failure to expand Affordable Care Act tax credits has caused monthly health insurance premiums for farmers and small business owners to skyrocket from four hundred dollars to eighteen hundred dollars.
To address these challenges, Cooke has built a broad coalition endorsed by both Senator Bernie Sanders and the moderate Blue Dog Democrats. She explains that these seemingly opposite factions share a common anti-establishment, anti-trust, and pro-worker ethos. This unified economic message resonates strongly across her nineteen-county district, which previously swung from Barack Obama to Donald Trump.
Rebuilding a Democratic coalition in these rural areas requires offering disillusioned voters a soft landing. While canvassing, Cooke is finding two-time Trump and Van Orden voters who feel alienated by current economic instability and the war in Iran, noting they originally voted for an America First promise to end foreign conflicts. Cooke emphasizes welcoming these voters back without shaming them for their twenty twenty-four votes, acknowledging they could not have foreseen these outcomes.
Finally, Cooke contrasts Van Orden’s controversial behavior and intense national Republican backing with her own roots as a waitress and sixth-generation Wisconsinite raised on a dairy farm. While Van Orden avoids in-person town halls and makes erratic late-night social media posts, Cooke shows up at local county fairs and supports banning congressional stock trading. When Van Orden used artificial intelligence deepfakes to accuse her of owning a lavish lakefront property, Cooke disarmed the smear with transparency, filming a tour of the modest home to show its peeling stairs and wood stove heat source.
Ultimately, this episode illustrates how grounding a campaign in local economic realities, radical transparency, and working-class authenticity provides a viable blueprint for competing in rural America.
Episode Overview
- Host Tommy Vietor interviews Rebecca Cooke, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Representative in Wisconsin’s 19-county, agricultural 3rd Congressional District (WI-03), about her strategy to unseat Republican incumbent Derrick Van Orden.
- The conversation contrasts Van Orden's controversial behavior and intense national Republican backing—including visits from President Trump, 10 cabinet officials, and $2 million in outside spending—with Cooke’s working-class roots as a 6th-generation Wisconsinite who grew up on a 150-year-old family dairy farm.
- Cooke details the severe economic and policy pressures squeezing rural voters, including the war in Iran driving up diesel and fertilizer costs, reciprocal tariffs hurting agricultural producers, and unexpanded Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits causing monthly health insurance premiums to jump from $400 to $1,800.
- The episode explores how Democrats can rebuild a "big tent" coalition in rural areas that previously swung from Barack Obama to Donald Trump by bridging progressive and moderate factions and welcoming back disillusioned voters.
Key Concepts
- Bridging the Ideological Divide with an Anti-Establishment Ethos: Cooke discloses she is endorsed by both Senator Bernie Sanders and the moderate Blue Dog Democrats. She explains that in a polarized party, these seemingly opposite factions share a common thread: a pro-worker, anti-trust, and anti-establishment focus that resonates in rural, working-class districts.
- Connecting Foreign Policy and Trade to Rural Pocketbooks: Rural agricultural communities are directly impacted by national and global policy decisions. Vietor notes a friend in Iowa warned that the state could lose 20% of its farmers before harvest due to high diesel costs, while Cooke highlights how a trade war with Canada, reciprocal tariffs on soybean and cranberry producers, and the war in Iran spiking fuel and fertilizer costs are squeezing local farmers. Additionally, the failure to expand ACA tax credit premiums has caused health insurance for farmers and small business owners to rise from $400 to $1,800 a month.
- Disillusionment with "America First" Promises: While canvassing in rural areas like Melrose (population 524) and speaking with voters beyond her own farmer roundtables (whom she hedges are "probably more bigger supporters of me"), Cooke is finding two-time Trump and Van Orden voters who are angry about the war in Iran. These voters supported Trump's "America First" promise to end foreign forever wars and feel alienated by current military conflicts and economic instability.
- Contrasting Extreme Incumbency with Working-Class Authenticity: Vietor characterizes Van Orden as one of the biggest creeps "in Congress, maybe in Washington, maybe in the country, in my opinion," citing a post-10:00 PM tweet (speculating if Van Orden was "a little tipsy") where the Congressman quote-tweeted Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth with "I vollenteer" and stated "these radial [sic] Islamist need to get the message" to join a firing squad for Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan—even after Trump shut down Hegseth's proposal to live-stream the execution (which a poll showed Americans opposed 80 to 18). Cooke contrasts Van Orden’s behavior—including a 2021 outburst over a library Pride display and never holding an in-person town hall—with her own background: she formerly owned an American-made goods store called "Red's Mercantile," currently works as a waitress at an Eau Claire restaurant called "The Good Wives," supports banning congressional stock trading, and ranks running for Congress as easier than both waitressing and the 365-day-a-year, 7-days-a-week job of dairy farming (recalling unthawing cattle drinking cups in 20-below weather).
- Sponsor Disclosure: During an ad read, co-host Jon Favreau discloses episode sponsor ZipRecruiter (
ziprecruiter.com/CROOKED), stating that 4 out of 5 employers who post on the platform get a quality candidate within the first day. Cooke also solicits campaign donations of $5, $10, or $25 atcookeforwisconsin.com.
Quotes
- At 1:45 - "He's participated in the January 6th insurrection. You know, he's gotten drunk in his official office and yelled at Senate pages. Um, he's carried a loaded gun through TSA. This is just another example of the sort of person that's representing us in Wisconsin 3 who is, who is out of touch." - Cooke explaining why she is running against incumbent Derrick Van Orden and highlighting his history of controversial behavior.
- At 12:03 - "And they are just getting hammered. I mean, between the impact that, um, reciprocal tariffs have also had on our soybean producers, our cranberry producers, um, now this trade war with Canada, um, and then you look at the impact the war in Iran has had on diesel prices, on fertilizer prices, uh, people are getting squeezed." - Cooke detailing the specific macroeconomic and foreign policy pressures hurting rural farmers in her district.
- At 14:01 - "Big tent to me means bringing people back in. This district is a district that went for Obama before it went for Trump, and so we need to give people who maybe used to vote for Democrats a soft landing space back here, and in—and not shame people, too. It's like, nobody could foresee what was going to happen with, uh, with tariffs, with this war in Iran, when they cast their—they cast their votes in 2024, and so we welcome those people in, for sure." - Cooke outlining her core strategy for winning back working-class voters who previously defected from the Democratic Party.
Takeaways
- Provide a "Soft Landing" for Switching Voters: When engaging with disillusioned voters who previously supported Donald Trump, avoid shaming them for their 2024 votes. Acknowledge that they could not have foreseen current tariffs or the war in Iran, and offer a welcoming environment back into your coalition.
- Disarm Smear Campaigns with Radical Transparency: Rather than ignoring false attacks or relying only on formal legal pushback (like sending a cease and desist letter), use humor and direct video evidence to expose exaggerations. When Van Orden used AI deepfakes and accused Cooke of owning a "lavish lakefront property" on Tainter Lake, she successfully countered by filming a tour of the modest home she bought in 2019, renovated, and rented out to recoup costs—showing her peeling stairs, lack of a dock or boat, and a wood stove as her primary heat source.
- Show Up in Rural Communities and Deliver Tangible Results: Campaigning in agricultural districts requires visible, local engagement across all counties—such as Cooke's campaign ("Team Tib") buying a pig from a 4-H member at a September county fair livestock auction and donating the meat to area food pantries—paired with a commitment to deliver tangible, pocketbook results within the first 100 days of a legislative majority.
