Rebecca Cooke (politician)

Rebecca Cooke was born on December 21, 1987,^[1] in Eau Claire, Wisconsin,^[2] the youngest of three children in a dairy farming family.^[3][4] She is a descendant of abolitionist Chauncey Cooke.^[2]

Cooke attended 4-H youth programs as a child,^[5] and was the president of her local 4-H club.^[6] While attending North High School,^[7] she began working as a waitress.^[8] After graduation, she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of St. Thomas.^[9]

After college, Cooke worked as a fundraiser for national campaigns. From 2012 to 2014, she served as finance director for four congressional campaigns in four U.S. states.^[10][11] In 2014,^[12] she moved back to Eau Claire, where she opened a home goods store, Red's Mercantile,^[13] and began to work as a political consultant. Between 2015 and 2021, Cooke's consulting firm advised eight political campaigns.^[10][11]

In 2016, Cooke founded a nonprofit to support female business owners with grants.^[10] In 2019, Governor Tony Evers appointed her to the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation's board of directors,^[14][13] where she co-chaired the Entrepreneurship & Innovation Committee and later served as board secretary.^[2][15] Cooke resigned from the board in November 2021.^[16][17] In 2022, she closed her home goods store.^[18][19]

Cooke identifies as a centrist,^[37] and has repeatedly said she plans to caucus with the Blue Dogs if elected.^[26][27] She has called herself as "a Blue Dog and a new Dem" but "very progressive where it counts".^[38] Cooke has criticized the national Democratic Party's public image,^[21] calling their branding "far left" and out of touch with most Americans.^[21] She has called congressional Democrats "too far left" and congressional Republicans "too far right".^[22]

Cooke has opposed calls to defund the police and abolish ICE.^[39] A supporter of universal background checks,^[40] she supports stronger enforcement of red flag laws.^[40] She has defended the right to purchase and own a gun and supports the Second Amendment.^[40][41]

Cooke is pro-choice^[22] and has called abortion a decision that should be "free from political or governmental interference".^[40] She supports expanding Medicare to cover dental, hearing, and vision.^[37] She has backed stronger antitrust laws,^[22] and supports increasing the minimum wage to $15.^[40]

Cooke supported the 2026 United States intervention in Venezuela and the ouster of President Nicolás Maduro, but criticized the Trump administration's lack of a "concrete plan for stability" in the country.^[42] She has opposed foreign ownership of American farmland,^[43][44] and criticized tariffs imposed by the Trump administration for causing family farm bankruptcies.^[45]

Cooke lives in Colfax, Wisconsin,^[12] and is a senior visiting fellow at Third Way, a centrist think tank.^[15] She is a personal friend of U.S. representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, the co-chair of the Blue Dog Coalition.^[22] Cooke is Protestant.^[46]