Rebecca Cooke’s Big Lie

July 25, 2024

A new report from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel shows how Rebecca Cooke, who masquerades as a Wisconsin farm girl and waitress, falsely claims she’s a political outsider.

Bice: “But here is a part of Cooke’s resume that she doesn’t play up: In the years leading up to her first campaign in 2021, Cooke worked as a professional fundraiser for candidates across the country… Overall, she and her firm were paid more than $190,000 for their work by a dozen committees and campaigns.“

The truth is, Rebecca Cooke is nothing more than a paid political activist campaigning for California liberals and Wisconisn’s most far left candidates like Mandela Barnes and Tom Nelson.

“Rebecca Cooke spent her career as a paid political activist electing radical leftists who call defunding the police ‘sexy’ and want to let criminals out of jail. Voters see through her act – Cooke is a Squad-style radical whose values are more San Francisco than Southwest Wisconsin.” – NRCC Spokesman Mike Marinella

Read more from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel here or see experts below.

Cooke says she’s a political outsider but raked in nearly $200K for political work
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Daniel Bice
July 25, 2024

Democratic Congressional candidate Rebecca Cooke wants voters to know that she was born on a farm, works as a waitress and, perhaps most importantly, is a political outsider.

“You know, I don’t come from a career background in politics,” Cooke told the Wisconsin Examiner earlier this year. “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.”

Cooke even told a radio host last year that she hates fundraising, saying, “I mean it’s unfortunately a part of our political process and our political system. It’s like who raises the most dollars is the most viable, right?”

But here is a part of Cooke’s resume that she doesn’t play up:

In the years leading up to her first campaign in 2021, Cooke worked as a professional fundraiser for candidates across the country. Cooke is one of four Democrats vying to take on Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden of Prairie du Chien in November. She lost in the Democratic primary for the same seat two years ago.

Beginning in late 2012, Cooke, 36, served as finance director for four congressional races in Minnesota, Michigan, Colorado and California, raising $3.7 million in one of those contests. In 2015, she registered Cooke Strategy LLC, a Democratic political and fundraising consulting firm. FEC records show the firm advised eight state and federal campaigns between 2015 and 2021.

Overall, she and her firm were paid more than $190,000 for their work by a dozen committees and campaigns.

Along with all that, Cooke served on the steering committee for Opportunity Wisconsin, a liberal nonprofit active in congressional races.

[…]

For her work for the four Democrats, Cooke was paid $77,543 in salary and consulting fees and another $10,699 in expenses.

After forming Cooke Strategy, she worked for five federal candidates, two state candidates and a leadership political action committee. Among those for whom she did were former state Rep. Dana Wachs, a Democrat who was defeated in his gubernatorial bid in 2018; Appeals Court Judge Joanne Kloppenburg, who ran unsuccessfully for the Supreme Court in 2016; and Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson, who lost his congressional bid in 2016.

Records show that between 2015 and 2021, Cooke Strategy was paid $67,191 by federal candidates and committees and $37,148 by state candidates, meaning the firm received more than $104,000 during that period.

She has also done work for Downtown Eau Claire, Inc. and the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Small Business Development Center. It is not known how much she was paid for that work. Her financial statement says Cook Strategy made $15,000 in 2023.

All in all, though, not bad take-home pay for a supposed side gig.