Shankland says experience in Legislature can help her win, work for 3rd Congressional District

Wisconsin State Rep. Katrina Shankland (D-Stevens Point) says that when she arrived in the Legislature at age 25, she was told she wouldn’t be able to accomplish much as a young freshman Democrat. Yet 13 years later, she’s been an author or co-sponsor on more than 200 bills enacted into law. 

She tells the Wisconsin Examiner that experience in the Legislature, and winning six elections in a district Republicans have unsuccessfully tried to  flip, can help her beat Republican U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden in the state’s 3rd Congressional District. 

“I remember at the time, at the age of 25, I had colleagues from both parties say, you’re a freshman and you’re young, you’re never gonna get anything done,” she says. “And I don’t internalize those comments. I use them to motivate me and I said, ‘just watch.’

She points to issues including rural health care access, prescription drug prices, agricultural conservation and environmental issues as areas where she’s been able to deliver assistance to her constituents despite spending her entire time in the Legislature as a member of the minority party. 

In the Democratic primary for the seat, Shankland is running against Rebecca Cooke, a non-profit leader and former Eau Claire-area small business owner. Cooke says her position as an outsider can help her defeat Van Orden in the general election because voters in the district are looking for an “outsider.” Shankland says she’s proven she can win tough elections, often outperforming Democrats on the top of the ticket with support from independents and Republicans in her Central Wisconsin district.

“I think that people care much more about how you’re going to be effective for them,” she says. “The No. 1 question every candidate for public office should answer well is, ‘What are you going to do for me?’ And my answer is, have your back every day of the week, and get things done for you. When there’s a problem. I’m going to solve it.”

In the primary, Cooke has earned the endorsement of the Blue Dog PAC, a group of moderate Democrats who have won in swingy districts that helped elect  by former President Donald Trump. The Blue Dogs have drawn criticism for endorsing a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution and helping to kill the public option when the Affordable Care Act was passed. Shankland, in contrast, has been endorsed by progressive U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan and former House Appropriations Committee chair Rep. David Obey, one of Wisconsin’s longest-serving members of Congress, as well as a number of labor unions and several other state and local elected officials. 

Shankland says she will be a representative for working class people “every day of the week,” and that she’s been able to be successful by espousing “politics of addition and not subtraction.” She credits her reputation for being responsive to her constituents with holding her seat in the Legislature in an increasingly Republican district.

In 2012, Shankland outperformed President Barack Obama by 3% in Portage County. In 2020, she outperformed then-candidate Joe Biden by about 2%.

In the Legislature, Shankland serves on the committees that oversee agriculture, universities, the environment and workforce development. She says her policy views are clear from her record while Cooke’s remain unclear, especially considering her Blue Dog endorsement. 

“I think that that’s a question that a lot of people are going to want to know especially related to her Blue Dog affiliation,” Shankland says. “What I can tell you is, as a policy maker, the biggest difference is I’ve made policy. I know how to get things done.”

The winner of the primary will earn the chance to challenge Van Orden, who has repeatedly gained national attention for controversies and garnered complaints from Democrats that he lacks the temperament to represent the 3rd District. Prior to being elected, he made headlines for attending the “Stop the Steal” rally that led to the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Other controversial episodes include one in which Van Orden yelled  at the teenage employee of a Prairie du Chien library over an LGBTQ book display, and yelled  at teenage Senate pages for taking pictures in the U.S. Capitol rotunda. He also recently interrupted President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech, yelling “lies!”. 

“I was raised by two public school teachers,” Shankland says. “My parents always taught me that when I felt something was wrong, I needed to do something about it, not just complain. And Derrick Van Orden is my member of Congress. He has done so many things to gain national attention for all the wrong reasons, and he has acted against Wisconsin values in a number of ways. From screaming at teenagers on numerous occasions, to wanting to take away our health care, slash Social Security — and he also has very extreme positions on abortion. And so I know that I’m in a position to do something about it instead of just complain.”

When Van Orden was elected in 2022, he ran against state Sen. Brad Pfaff (D-Onalaska), who regularly brought up his opponent’s character before losing a close race that many local Democrats blamed on the evaporation of national support. In that 2022 race, Van Orden refused to debate Pfaff, but Shankland says that now that he’s an incumbent, he needs to face his constituents. 

“He’s afraid to face his own constituents, he’s afraid to face voters, he’s afraid to face a Democratic candidate for Congress,” she says. “I think that speaks to his understanding that he is vulnerable. When I travel across the 3rd Congressional District, I always ask, ‘How many of you have seen Derrick Van Orden?’ Most of them will say no, but we heard he had a closed door, invite-only meeting, and that is his M.O. And he is more interested in controlling who’s allowed to speak with him and meet with him and what that narrative says, than he is facing the public.”