Clickmen
In a major contest Tuesday, Wisconsin Democrat state Rep. Katrina Shankland was defeated by native enterprise proprietor Rebecca Cooke, establishing 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 final yr after longtime Democrat incumbent Ron Kind selected to not search reelection. Pfaff has determined to not problem Van Orden in 2024.
Prior to Van Orden profitable the seat in 2022, Wisconsin’s third District was represented by Kind for greater than 20 years.
The race for the Democrats ultimately turned ugly between candidates Cooke and Shankland. The Wisconsin Examiner reported that within the ultimate days of the race, the election turned “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 ELECTION RESULTS & UPDATES
The Wisconsin State Capitol (Education Images/Universal Images Group through Getty Images)
–
“This is a dramatic shift in tone from the 2022 primary, and that could be for a number of reasons,” UW-La Crosse political science professor Anthony Chergosky informed the Examiner. “One reason could be, I think, Democrats are no doubt fired up about the prospect of defeating Derrick Van Orden, and that means that the opportunity to be the party standard-bearer is a highly coveted opportunity, and so Shankland and Cook have gone negative.”
