Rebecca Cooke is the Democratic nominee for Wisconsin's 3rd Congressional District, having won her August 2026 primary to set up a third consecutive run against Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden. A small business owner, nonprofit leader, and waitress, Cooke has said this will be her final campaign for the seat, and she enters the race as the clear front-runner with support spanning the Democratic Party's ideological spectrum.

Born and raised on a dairy farm outside Eau Claire, Cooke was active in 4-H, started waiting tables in high school, and put herself through the University of St. Thomas with the help of Pell Grants, scholarships, and multiple jobs. After college, she worked as a fundraiser and finance director for congressional campaigns across the country before returning home to Eau Claire in 2015, where she opened a home goods store, Red's Mercantile, and became a political consultant.

In 2016, Cooke founded a nonprofit that has provided start-up capital and hands-on education for women-owned small businesses across ten counties in western Wisconsin, and in 2019 Governor Tony Evers appointed her to the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation's board of directors, where she co-chaired the Entrepreneurship & Innovation Committee. After running for the 3rd District in 2022 and narrowly losing to Van Orden in 2024 while outperforming the top of the Democratic ticket, Cooke has built a coalition that includes the Blue Dog Coalition, the New Democrat Coalition, and Senator Bernie Sanders. She continues to wait tables several nights a week while campaigning full time.