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A Democratic Home candidate vying to flip a key Republican-held seat is on the defensive after reversing her place on conversion remedy following backlash from the social gathering’s left flank.
Rebecca Cooke, a Democratic challenger vying to unseat Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., repeatedly declined to endorse a federal ban on conversion remedy throughout a number of boards held forward of the Aug. 11 major.
However after drawing criticism from some progressive voters, Cooke reversed course, saying the federal authorities ought to prohibit the controversial apply, which regularly entails psychological well being professionals providing discuss remedy for people scuffling with their sexual orientation or gender identification.
The difficulty gained renewed consideration when the Supreme Courtroom dominated earlier this 12 months that Colorado couldn’t implement a state-level ban on conversion remedy over free speech considerations, sparking backlash from some Democrats.
Demonstrators rally in response to the U.S. Supreme Courtroom’s rejection of a Colorado regulation banning conversion remedy for LGBTQ minors at Stonewall Nationwide Monument in New York on April 1, 2026. (AFP by way of Getty Photographs)
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The reversal comes as Cooke seems to be strolling a political tightrope on LGBTQ points within the Trump-friendly swing district, the place she should attraction to each Democratic major voters and the broader voters.
Earlier than Cooke can search a rematch towards Van Orden, she should first overcome a major problem from former Eau Claire Metropolis Council President Emily Berge, who’s working to her left.
Requested what lawmakers may do to push again towards the Supreme Courtroom ruling at a Might discussion board in La Crosse, Cooke sidestepped the query and stated she most popular “native communities having management.”
“I’m in favor of that kind of native management when making insurance policies like this,” the Wisconsin Democrat stated.
Wisconsin’s conversion remedy ban took impact in 2022, whereas town of Eau Claire, in Van Orden’s district, prohibited the apply in 2018.
In the meantime, at a June candidate discussion board in Platteville, Cooke stated “no” when requested if the federal authorities ought to cross laws to ban conversion remedy.
Her solutions prompted outrage from some progressive voters.
“I discover it attention-grabbing that not in a single, however TWO boards you stated you would depart conversion remedy as much as the states to resolve,” one consumer wrote on Fb. “That isn’t defending the LGBTQ group.”
“I don’t know how one can say ‘Comfortable Pleasure’ in case you aren’t prepared to face up for individuals you need to signify in Congress,” one other account replied. “If you’re prepared to promote out the LGBTQIA+ group for votes, who’s subsequent?”
Rebecca Cooke, candidate for Congress in Wisconsin’s third Congressional District, speaks throughout a city corridor hosted by Pete Buttigieg on the La Crosse Middle on Jan. 16, 2026, in La Crosse, Wis. (Kayla Wolf/Getty Photographs)
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Amid the backlash, Cooke stated she “misunderstood” the moderator’s query and stated she supported a federal ban on conversion remedy in a press release posted on a third-party account after the talk.
Throughout a July discussion board in Eau Claire, Cooke clarified, “I don’t assist conversion remedy in anyway.”
Berge, who helped enact Eau Claire’s native conversion remedy ban, was clear all through the candidate boards in denouncing the apply.
“As a therapist, conversion remedy has no place in our society, in our tradition,” she stated throughout the June occasion.
Republicans sharply criticized Cooke’s reversal on conversion remedy bans.
Van Orden’s marketing campaign argued Cooke, who counts Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., amongst her endorsers, flip-flopped on her stance whereas nonetheless making an attempt to “painting herself as a average.”
“Rebecca Cooke is so determined to appease the far-left woke mob that Wisconsin voters can’t make sure the place she really stands,” Republican Nationwide Committee (RNC) spokesman Hunter Lovell informed Fox Information Digital.
“She’s making an attempt to be one candidate for liberal activists and one other for everybody else,” he continued. “Whether or not it’s caving to the far left or scrambling to rebrand herself for the overall election, Cooke owes Wisconsinites a solution: Which Rebecca Cooke would present up in Congress?”
Fox Information Digital reached out to Cooke for remark.
Cooke, a former Democratic advisor, fundraiser and small enterprise proprietor, has persistently supported increasing LGBTQ rights throughout her earlier two failed bids for Wisconsin’s third Congressional District.
Rep. Derrick Van Orden speaks earlier than Vice President JD Vance at Pointe Precision in Plover, Wis., on Feb. 26, 2026. (Getty Photographs)
In her third run for the seat, the repeat candidate is making clear that the Democrat-backed Equality Act — laws that might make sexual orientation and gender identification protected courses beneath federal civil rights regulation probably affecting women-only areas and feminine sports activities groups — is a “centerpiece” of her marketing campaign.
She can be endorsed by the progressive Human Rights Marketing campaign, which has advocated for intercourse change procedures for minors, together with hormone remedy and puberty blockers.
President Donald Trump comfortably carried the sprawling swing district by greater than seven factors in 2024, that means Cooke would probably need to win over a phase of the president’s voters to prevail in November.
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Cooke, who considerably outperformed former Vice President Kamala Harris, misplaced to Van Orden within the common election by just below three factors in 2024, in keeping with evaluation from The Downballot.
The nonpartisan Cook dinner Political Report charges the battleground contest as a “toss-up.”
