VIROQUA, Wis. – Nationally known activist David Hogg who founded the organization Leaders We Deserve made a stop in Viroqua with congressional candidate Katrina Shankland on Monday and spoke about why he is endorsing her for the 3rd Congressional District. Shankland was also joined by Congressman Mark Pocan who has also been campaigning with Shankland, who faces two other opponents in the Tuesday primary. Shankland, a state representative from Stevens Point, faces Eau Claire small-business owner Rebecca Cooke, and progressive newcomer Eric Wilson of Eau Claire.

Shankland, Hogg and Pocan were on a nine city tour over the last three days of the election that included La Crosse, Wisconsin Rapids, Stevens Point, Black River Falls, Eau Claire, Menomonie, Viroqua, Richland Center and Platteville.

Current Congressman Derrick Van Orden was elected in 2022. The district was represented by Ron Kind, a moderate Democrat, for 26 years. Van Orden won the seat in 2022 against Brad Pfaff, also a moderate Democrat, by just four points.

Hogg was thrust into the national spotlight following a mass shooting at his high school, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in 2018, where 17 people were killed and many more injured. He and his classmates mobilized millions in the fight against gun violence. Hogg took a gap year after high school; helped launch March for Our Lives, a nonprofit that lobbies for gun control legislation. He has since graduated from Harvard and has co-founded Leaders We Deserve, a political action committee dedicated to getting young progressives elected to office.

One of the first people Leaders We Deserve got elected was Max Frost from Florida, who was elected at just 25 years old. Hogg said it was the lessons he learned after the Parkland Shooting that helped him and Leaders We Deserve get Frost elected.

“And everybody told me, you know, Maxwell’s a great guy, but you know, he’s too young,” said Hogg. “He doesn’t have the money, he doesn’t have the experience. He can’t win. And I said, well, I’ve heard that before. After Parkland, people told us the same thing. They said you kids are, you’re just a bunch of dumb kids and what happened to you is awful, but this is Florida. Nothing changes here. But we did. We raised the age to buy a gun after Parkland to 21 because those young people stood up and showed up at their state legislature and we passed a red flag law that can disarm people that are at risk to themselves or others. And that’s important. That’s important because the shooter at my high school, while he was a criminal, he wasn’t a criminal mastermind with deep connections to the black market or something like that. He was a deranged 19-year-old anti-Semite that repeatedly threatened to shoot up my high school and was able to legally obtain an AR15 and continue to own that AR15 despite repeatedly threatening to shoot up my high school and being reported to the FBI. And local law enforcement multiple times. Because there was no legal infrastructure to remove that firearm from him, right? That is who the NRA says is the responsible gun owner who’s threatened by things like a red flag law right that have due process and a right to counsel in them.”

Hogg said he knows personally that the change in laws like the red flag law they helped pass make a difference.

“And I know the impact of these laws and the impact of us having the hope to believe that change was possible after Parkland,” said Hogg. “My mother got a death threat from an NRA supporter that said, F with the NRA and you’ll be DOA. But because of us passing that law after Parkland, because we had the audacity to hope and believe that change was possible. We just saw we were able to disarm the men that threatened to kill my own mother using that law. Had we not passed that law, I may have had to bury my own mother. That same law has been used 12,000 times since the shooting in Parkland. So if anybody goes out there and says you just can’t do this, that this isn’t possible, that you’re being outspent, that this is too hard, that they’re just not going to win, that’s not true. More often than not in life, the biggest obstacle to creating change isn’t whether or not it’s actually possible. The biggest obstacle is whether or not people believe it’s possible.”

Had we not passed that law, I may have had to bury my own mother. That same law has been used 12,000 times since the shooting in Parkland. So if anybody goes out there and says you just can’t do this, that this isn’t possible, that you’re being outspent, that this is too hard, that they’re just not going to win, that’s not true. More often than not in life, the biggest obstacle to creating change isn’t whether or not it’s actually possible. The biggest obstacle is whether or not people believe it’s possible.”

David Hogg – Leaders We Deserve Organizer

Hogg told the crowd he initially did not want to get involved in a primary but decided to get into the race when he saw how the race was evolving.

“You know, I looked at this race and I didn’t want to get involved in the primary,” said Hogg. “Because I thought, lets just focused on the general. Katrina’s great. She’s gonna win. But then I saw some of the disgusting and nasty false attacks being waged against Katrina. I said, you know what, screw that. We’re getting involved because she has delivered repeatedly for Wisconsin. She’s passed 225 bills and got them signed into law, despite Republicans mostly being in control during that time. And it’s because she’s a damn good legislator. She knows what she’s doing.”

Hogg said this is the only congressional race he has become involved in because he sees it as a key seat to getting things done in Washington, on gun legislation, or anything important to his generation.

“The reason I’m here right now, there are 435 other congressional races that I could be in,” said Hogg. “This is the only one that I am showing up for in this election cycle. The only one. And it’s because I know that we have to win this seat and Katrina is the best person to do that. That’s why I’m here right now.”

Hogg sited Shankland’s skill in taking on Republicans as one of the reasons for his endorsement.

“Republicans were trying to repeal unemployment benefits (In Wisconsin), right?” said Hogg. “And that’s a big deal for a lot of blue collar workers in this state that can only work half of the year because they’re out paving the roads, for example. And you can’t do that in the winter here, right? And when Katrina told the Republicans. Why are you going after our blue-collar workers like that? They got really scared. And they stopped talking about it. And even the ones that were the most adversarial in committee hearings refused to even talk about it and Katrina went on the attack. And guess what? Those benefits, They didn’t get repealed. Because she is a damn good legislator.”

And Hogg sited her ability to reach across the aisle and get legislation passed, even when she is in the minority.

“We need to reinstall hope in our democracy because the opposite of that, the apathy and hopelessness that I’ve seen, that is the greatest threat to American democracy. It’s not Donald Trump. It’s that hopelessness and apathy that is empowered Donald Trump that tells us that nothing’s ever going to get better and it’s a self filling prophecy over and over and over again. The best antidote to that is electing somebody who can get shit done and show that there is hope.”

David Hogg – Leaders We Deserve Organizer

“We are raising a traumatized generation, folks,” said Hogg. “And if we don’t show them that their government can do the bare minimum of protecting them, they’re not going to continue to have faith in democracy. Because why would they if it can’t keep them safe in their schools at a bare minimum? We have to elect Katrina in this election because we need to reinstall hope in our democracy because the opposite of that, the apathy and hopelessness that I’ve seen, that is the greatest threat to American democracy. It’s not Donald Trump. It’s that hopelessness and apathy that is empowered Donald Trump that tells us that nothing’s ever going to get better and it’s a self filling prophecy over and over and over again. The best antidote to that is electing somebody who can get shit done and show that there is hope. And that’s why I’m so happy to be supporting Katrina in this election.”

Hogg went on the attack when it came to incumbent Congressman Derrick Van Orden who was at the Capitol on Jan. 6, and said he should be prosecuted for his involvement.

“Derrick doesn’t represent this district,” said Hogg. “He doesn’t represent the values of our country. Especially as somebody who claims to be a patriot, but is there on January 6? I don’t know about you guys, but I think there’s one place where somebody who participate in January 6 belongs, and it’s not in Congress. It’s in prison.”

Congressman Pocan said he endorsed Shankland because she gets bills passed, 255 compared to Van Orden’s one bill, she outperforms in a Republican District and she is the candidate that Leaders We Deserve picked to be among the next generation of leaders.

Two other candidates, Rebecca Cooke and Eric Wilson are also running to unseat Van Orden in November, but Cooke and Shankland appear to be the front-runners in terms of financial support and endorsements. The race between the two has become contentious in the final weeks. Here is a the Wisconsin Examiner article from last week that has more detail on the race.

Democratic primary in 3rd Congressional District gets heated

By: Henry Redman – August 10, 2024

In the weeks before polls opened in the Democratic primary in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, two of the candidates traded increasingly heated attacks against each other as the race ramped up. 

State Rep. Katrina Shankland (D-Stevens Point) and Rebecca Cooke, who runs a local non-profit and previously ran a small business, are running to take on Republican incumbent Rep. Derrick Van Orden. A third candidate, Eric Wilson, who has worked in real estate and health care, is also running but has not been involved in the attacks. 

In the final days of the race, the election has become more combative as outside super PACs have injected money into the race on behalf of Cooke while Shankland cries foul and touts her experience as a legislator. 

The 3rd Congressional District in western Wisconsin is a big target for Democrats this year, with hopes of unseating Van Orden after just one term. The Republican has regularly made headlines nationally for public outbursts. Prior to Van Orden winning the seat in 2022, the district was represented for more than two decades by Democrat Ron Kind. 

Cooke also ran in the 2022 Democratic primary, losing that race to state Sen. Brad Pfaff (D-Onalaska). Pfaff lost the general election by 3.7 points, with many Democrats across the state blaming the loss on national Democrats for withdrawing financial support for Pfaff in a winnable race.

“This is a dramatic shift in tone from the 2022 primary, and that could be for a number of reasons,” UW-La Crosse political science professor Anthony Chergosky says. “One reason could be, I think, Democrats are no doubt fired up about the prospect of defeating Derrick Van Orden, and that means that the opportunity to be the party standard bearer is a highly coveted opportunity, and so Shankland and Cook have gone negative.”

In this year’s primary, Shankland has run on her record as a legislator and won the support of 20 labor organizations, while Cooke has painted herself as a political “outsider” and is supported by groups that represent centrist Democrats. 

Despite the divide in the candidate’s “branding,” Cooke told the Examiner in March that Shankland “might lean a little bit more left” than her, but that their policy views on issues such as abortion rights and health care are similar. Rather, Cooke said, “I think it comes down to the profile that’s going to be able to take on [Van Orden].”

“It remains unclear what exactly the policy differences are,” Chergosky says. “If there are, in fact, any policy differences between Cooke and Shankland. Largely the campaign has been about the development of their brands.” 

Last month, Shankland’s campaign released a TV ad in which Shankland cuts her husband’s hair and asks, “Would you hire a barber who’s never cut hair before? So why send someone to Congress who’s never held public office and never passed a single bill?”

A few weeks later, an outside group supporting Cooke began running an ad that claimed Shankland is “working for Republicans, not you.” The ad from New Democratic Majority PAC mirrored talking points criticizing Shankland that had been posted to Cooke’s campaign website. The PAC has spent $150,000 on the attacks. Cooke has also accepted $170,000 in support from other conservative-leaning PACs. 

The attacks highlight Shankland’s 2018 vote with Republicans on a bill that included a provision to prohibit the governor from expanding Medicaid without the approval of lawmakers. 

The bipartisan legislation created a reinsurance plan, approved by the federal government in connection with the federal Affordable Care Act, to stabilize individual health insurance costs and lower premiums. Republicans added the Medicaid expansion restriction midway through the debate over the bill, and Democrats attempted to nullify it but failed. The final bill passed with some Democrats’ support in both houses. 

Shankland has responded to the attack by pointing to her co-sponsorship of a bill to expand BadgerCare for the past 12 years. 

Other Democrats have come to Shankland’s defense against the super PAC’s attacks. In a call earlier this month, U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, who has endorsed Shankland, said the focus should be on defeating Van Orden, “not to hack our fellow Democrats like this.”

Britt Cudaback, spokesperson for Gov. Tony Evers, disputed the claims in the attack against Shankland. 

“There are few legislators who’ve fought to expand BadgerCare and access to affordable healthcare in Wisconsin for as long as Katrina Shankland has,” Cudaback said. “And it’s especially disingenuous to invoke the governor in attack ads that aim to mislead people into believing otherwise.” 

Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine), also criticized the ad’s claims and its source. 

“[Shankland] is a steady and experienced leader who shows up for her constituents and colleagues,” Neubauer posted on X. “She has been at the forefront of Assembly Democrats’ fight to expand BadgerCare, help working families, and keep our communities safe and healthy. I’m incredibly disappointed to see her record and character under attack by a dark money super PAC from Washington, D.C. This kind of dishonesty doesn’t belong in our politics, especially coming from fellow Democrats.” 

In recent days, Cooke’s campaign has pushed back, pointing to outside funding Shankland has received in her previous legislative races and in this election from a PAC affiliated with David Hogg. Hogg is a survivor of the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, who has become politically active in the years since. 

“For Katrina Shankland it’s do as I say not as I do: she says she opposes outside spending but benefits from it, she says she cares about rural families but votes to take our health care away,” Cooke’s campaign manager Alex Obolensky said in a statement. “We can’t trust Katrina Shankland.”

Shankland’s campaign said the difference is that she didn’t use the outside money to attack fellow Democrats. 

Shankland’s campaign also unsuccessfully pushed for a debate to be held between the Democratic candidates, but Cooke’s campaign never agreed to terms. The lack of a debate in the primary surprised Chergosky after Democrats criticized Van Orden heavily in 2022 for refusing to debate Pfaff. 

“I think it would have been helpful for voters to just see them kind of hash things out face to face,” says Chergosky, who has previously moderated debates in the district.

He is also involved in a coalition of local civic institutions and media to host debates.

“But yeah, it came as a big surprise to us,” he says, “because we figured Democrats would be very eager to debate, given the opportunity that a debate would provide for them to make the case for themselves before a large TV and radio audience and to build on their party’s criticism of Van Orden for not debating.” 

Cooke has released internal polling suggesting she may be leading the race, though the poll included a large number of undecided voters. She also leads Shankland heavily in fundraising, with federal campaign finance reports showing Cooke has received more than $2 million in contributions while Shankland has raised about $860,000. 

Chergosky says there are two risks of a highly competitive primary. The competition could force the candidates to take positions that push them further to an ideological extreme, which he says he hasn’t seen in this race, or it could empty the campaign coffers before the general election. 

“I do not think that the competition in this primary has caused the race to take the most liberal positions possible,” he says. “In fact, I have not seen Cooke or Shankland really rush to take more progressive positions. So I don’t think that’s the issue so much as the effect on their campaign resources. The question for them would be, how much money is left in the bank after the primary is all said and done for whoever is the winner of this race?”