The war in Iran is making the 2026 elections “exponentially harder” for Republicans, GOP U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden said Tuesday in the first and only debate in the nationally watched 3rd Congressional District.
Van Orden went on to say the war is necessary to keep America safe.
“Do I want to be in a war with Iran right now? No, I don’t want to be in a war with anybody right now,” said Van Orden, a steadfast Trump ally first elected in 2022. “Is it making it exponentially harder for Republicans to hold the House and the Senate? Yes, it is. But we have to think about our children and grandchildren. We’ve been fighting the war that the radical Muslim mullahs declared on us for 50 years, and I don’t want my grandchildren fighting the same war that I did.”
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Van Orden is facing Democrat Rebecca Cooke for the seat, which has been targeted by national Democrats who hope to flip it. The debate was organized by the Eau Claire Area Chamber of Commerce and WEAU-13 News. It’s the first time Van Orden has debated a challenger in nearly six years.
On inflation and the economy, the candidates were asked what federal policies might bring producers’ costs down. Van Orden, who said he was raised in a poor, single-parent household, pointed out that prices for eggs, milk and gas were higher under Democratic President Joe Biden than they currently are under Republican President Donald Trump. Van Orden said the problem is diesel prices are higher than they were during Biden’s term, but Trump’s administration is responding.
“That’s why President Trump signed the Harvest Fuel act last night, and that will provide $9 billion to our farmers to make sure that the diesel prices get down during this harvest season, and we can get over this supply-and-demand hump that we’re in right now,” Van Orden said.
Cooke, who said she is a sixth-generation Wisconsinite, said farmers she’s talked to “don’t want handouts on the back end because of poor decision-making in Washington. They want good marketplaces to be able to sell their goods to the world and to feed the world.”
She said Trump’s war in Iran is to blame for rising input costs and noted Van Orden has voted six times against bills aimed at ending the conflict.
“This was a war that our president started without any sort of congressional approval,” Cooke said. “We’ve got to have a war powers resolution and make sure that Congress is deciding when we go to war, and also making sure that you know we’re putting America first, and that we’re investing in our communities.”
Throughout the debate, Van Orden mentioned his long military service before retiring as a Navy SEAL. He said Iran has killed thousands of American citizens and has closed the Strait of Hormuz, noting “they must never ever have a nuclear weapon.”
“We must finish this, and we have to stop thinking in these two-year political cycles and start thinking about the next generation,” he said.
Despite Cooke and Van Orden accusing each other of lying during the debate, they found some unexpected areas of agreement. Both voiced opposition to a proposed high-voltage transmission line that would cut through Wisconsin’s Driftless region, for different reasons. At one point, Cooke applauded Van Orden for doing “great work” on reforming the temporary visa process for migrant farm workers.
When asked about Trump’s rapidly shifting tariffs against other countries, including allied nations like Canada, Cooke said “nobody likes (the tariffs),” claiming the chaotic trade policy didn’t give Wisconsin farmers time to adjust.
Van Orden echoed Trump’s stance that tariffs are a tool to ensure fair trade, and countries like Canada are not “the good guy in the story.”
“They’ve been jamming our farmers and our workers hard,” Van Orden said. “They’ve been exporting cars and other parts from China, importing them into the United States to skip all this stuff out because Canada is looking out for Canada, and that’s going to stop.”
Cooke criticized Trump for importing beef from Argentina, “which undercuts our beef producers.”
“People are really getting squeezed at every turn, our agricultural communities, and we have Derrick Van Orden to blame, and this administration, for making it harder for folks to get by,” said Cooke.
Cooke previously challenged Van Orden in 2024, losing narrowly in the mostly rural, southwestern Wisconsin district. The Cook Political Report rates the race this year as a toss-up.
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