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Dairy Breakfasts and Double Shifts · Blue Dog Radio

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: In a district like Wisconsin's third, people can tell pretty quickly who's real and who isn't.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: It starts with whether you've lived anything close to the life people are trying to hold together.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: Rebecca Cook has She grew up on a dairy farm in western Wisconsin.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: She's run a small business.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: She's waitressed for most of her life.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: And she's running for Congress.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: In 2024, she came within two points of flipping one of the most competitive districts in the country.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: This time, she's back.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: And the question isn't just whether she can win, it's whether this district is ready for something different.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Blue Dog Radio.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: Real conversations with people working to bring a little more common sense back to their communities.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: This is our conversation with Rebecca Cook.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: Rebecca, welcome to Blue Dog Radio.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: For listeners who might not know you yet, how do you introduce yourself out in the district if you've got, oh, I don't know, 30 seconds at a county fair or a dairy breakfast?
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's March right now, and we're getting into spring and into December, and I'm going to be spending a lot of times at a lot of time at county fairs and at dairy breakfast throughout the district, which is kind of like one of the best opportunities.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_02: We do a lot of retail politicking there and just like chatting with folks as there, you know, 4-H'ers that are hanging out in the dairy barns or talking to fair growers midway or, you know, work in the dairy breakfast lines.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_02: And we have about like 30 seconds, you know, to sort of say like who you are and want to keep talking to you.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so in kind of in those moments, I'll say, you know, I'm Rebecca Cook.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm running for Congress.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_02: I grew up on a dairy farm here in this district.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_02: I think folks in DC are either so far left or so far right.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: And we need more, you know, regular people in Congress that really want to work across the aisle to get things done.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_02: And like sort of when I introduce myself, especially in those rural rural settings, with, you know, what my agricultural background is and sort of what my what my thoughts are on, I think the the factions that exist in Congress and like the extreme chaos and polarization.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_02: Nobody disagrees that Congress is chaotic and dysfunctional.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody like nods their head and they're like, yes.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_02: And that's before even talking about like a party affiliation, like just kind of connecting more on values that are Wisconsin values first.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then you know, I think going into like deeper conversations and sort of like at the end of a chat like that, people go, So what party are you from?
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I'd rather, I guess, that question and that we sort of connect on these other pieces.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: And I think a lot of people have really um connected just on like what my lived experiences have been having grown up at a farm.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_02: We had to sell our cows because of the price of milk and competition with larger dairies.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_02: You've seen, you know, you hear a lot in agriculture in general, just the story of what consolidation looks like in our country and small and mid-sized farms like the farm that I grew up on really rarely exist anymore.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and there's like sort of this feeling of nostalgia in our district for things like that in Wisconsin and I think in other parts of the country too, of like, yeah, like how things were and like how do you protect kind of that sort of livelihood and background?
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: And I think when I when I talk about that, when I talk about like I ran a small business in the district for a lot of years, it was a retail shop.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um, when I talk with small business owners, like I understand I can relate to the things that they're going through or the like problems that they're having, um, either with you know, local um politic political stuff or even federal things, but just like how it's tough to compete, you know, kind of with the Amazons of the world.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and that that's consolidation sort of in a different way, right?
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_02: I'm waitressing while I'm running for Congress.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_02: Additionally, I've always been a waitress, like most of my life.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_02: That was like my first job.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_02: I was 16 here in Eau Claire working at Mike's smokehouse.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um, that was my first job in high school, and I've sort of waitressed on and off all throughout college and most of my life.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_02: Like a lot of folks in this district, like I've always sort of worn multiple hats, business owner, waitress.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know what I mean?
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_02: And and I think that that's the story of most people here is like they're sort of piecing together things to be able to pay their bills um and ways to kind of make it work.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: You mentioned you're waitressing while running for Congress.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: What's something people misunderstand about that job?
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_02: One of the my favorite questions that people ask me when they come into the restaurant is like, like, sort of like, what are you doing here?
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_02: Or like, is this all you're doing?
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_02: Are you the owner?
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_02: Because I couldn't just like be a server, you know?
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I think there's just like this people sort of look down on that as a profession, even though I think there's so much dignity and hospitality work, like to do that as a full-time career.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_02: And there's a lot of people that I know that do that and that are able to make it work.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of people that I know that have turned back to hospitality work um in different times in their lives, right?
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_02: They might be going back to school, they might be trying to pay off student loans in addition to, you know, working their day job, whatever that might look like.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_02: So that's, I guess, sometimes the the funny misconception to me is that like being a waitress isn't like good enough.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_02: I think that we've lost value for some of those things in this country and like how we value work and how we value what people do for a living.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, this is this is what I'm doing.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm running for United States Congress.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_02: And like, and I would hire anybody with a uh a background in restaurants before I'd hire some people that have like four-year fancy degrees because I know those people know how to work in high stress situations.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_02: I know that those folks know how to what it means to like to work, you know, a day job and then come back and be on your feet all night at a really busy restaurant, how to multitask, how to deal with really tough people.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_02: The people skills that being um a waitress brings are sort of tough to ingrain unless you've sort of gone through a service and and really had your ass kicked, you know.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_02: Like the other thing I I like would hire for too is it's like farm kids.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_02: It's just like there's this kind of work ethic also that I think you can't replicate.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, you know, when you're and I'm growing up on a farm and it's like 20 below wind chill, all the drinking cups are frozen and you still have to get it, like there's no days off in running a dairy farm in particular.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_02: There's lots of other farming, but like you're up at five, like, or you're up milking at five, and you have chores at 5 a.m.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: and you have chores again at 5 p.m.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_02: You have so much shit to do in between then.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um and so like those are the two, if if I was to ever be like an HR director or something, those would be like the things I'd hire for, you know, people that have those 50 backgrounds and that I think are often looked down upon.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: You talked about growing up on a dairy farm and the moment your family had to sell the cows.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: What do you actually remember about that time?
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: What did that feel like for you and your family?
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_02: So we had registered holsteins.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, that's what we raised on our farm.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_02: So my dad was like a registered holstein breeder.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_02: We used to show cows at the fair, like all over Wisconsin, like at the Colfax Fair, at the Shipwa Fair, at the Eau Claire Fair, um, down at the state fair in Milwaukee.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_02: And so, like, most of my like like early youth, like we had just like some of the best cattle.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, my brother and sister were like Barian champion of the Northern Wisconsin State Fair, like almost every summer.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and my brother and sister are 10 and nine years older than me.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm like I'm the baby baby of the family.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_02: And so by the time I started sort of getting of age to like show cows and like be really part of some of this, you know, I I was always in 4-H, I was like a clover, but I didn't really involve in those things.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_02: But the time that I really got to like showing cattle and it was competitive and exciting, it's like my my siblings were gone.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and like farming had sort of changed, right?
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I was I was in high school when we had to sell our cattle.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I think what was tough about the choices made with that is that it wasn't just like my dad selling like our cows, and it was like, oh, this was just a business thing that didn't work.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_02: It was like part of our like heritage.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_02: We've had a farm in this district for 150 years.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_02: So my family originally settled down in Buffalo County, which is in the third congressional district.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_02: And I come from a long line of farmers, so it's not just like we sort of did this thing as a lark, it's like ending a legacy.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_02: And so it was really hard.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_02: And I think like my dad struggled in a big way.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_02: You know, there's a lot of national statistics about armor suicide rates and like depression and things like that.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_02: And he, it was really hard because you sort of are letting down this idea of like who you were supposed to be.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I think a lot of like other farmers, instead of selling out, they went big because that's sort of what was communicated to them by like Department of Agriculture.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's like sort of like go big or go home, you know.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_02: And we we tried to do that for a period of time.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_02: Like we had our home farm and then we rented a farm up one end of the road and a farm up another end of the road to try to like bulk up our mouth check.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_02: But it was just really difficult.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_02: And I think like farmers get into a lot of that work, you know, because it's familial and because it's sort of passed on, but also because they have a love of the land and a love of like actually working with animals and doing the work themselves.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_02: And when you grow to be such a big farm where it's almost like you're managing people, like my dad is not a people manager, you know what I mean?
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_02: Like when you grow, when you grow to have like a 2,000 cow dairy, which is like what you sort of have to do to like l make a good living, it's like it takes away from like what you set out to do.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_02: And so I think watching my dad, I think he had aspirations to build a big dairy, but it just wasn't like in the cards for us of like the resources up front that you would have to invest in something like that.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_02: And so that was tough.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_02: And then a handful of years later, my brother got out of the Navy and had sort of this dream of like reviving the farm and like milking again.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_02: And he did that, but it didn't last super long because it was just sort of tough to make it work, like from a financial perspective.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_02: And he was like a young guy in his in his mid-20s and taking over, taking the farm over, and it was just and it was hard, you know.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_02: And so he did that for a little while.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_02: We kept show I kept showing cattle all throughout high school.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_02: We still would always, you know, sort of figure that out, but you never stopped being a farmer.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_02: We diversified.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we always had beef cattle growing up.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_02: We also raised Angus beef in addition to milking cows and we had crops and things like that.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_02: So my dad focused more on Angus beef for a long period of time um before he was diagnosed with cancer, um, which I think really has that was in the last like five years or so here, and it's really been a lot harder for him to be able to mean we don't have any cattle now at the farm.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's just too hard to to sort of maintain.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_02: But there is this feeling of like always wanting to to be outside and get back out there and tinker with things.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_02: And um, because you're used to that routine of your life, you know.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_02: And my mom, my mom, neither of my parents graduated from college.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_02: They went to some school, but um, my mom always had jobs off the farm so that we would have insurance.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_02: There's a long period of time growing up that we didn't have any sort of health insurance.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um and so that was that was always hard.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_02: So she she was doing all sorts of things to try to make it work for us.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: You've built a small business and helped launch dozens more through your nonprofit.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: Where did that drive come from?
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: And what patterns do you see in people trying to build something of their own?
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I shared a little bit about my parents and sort of like the struggles we personally went through as a family.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_02: But I think in the same frame is that like, you know, we were trying to make our pay our bills, make stuff work, right?
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_02: My parents were also the first people that were like volunteering at church.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_02: The first people that when somebody was sick, my mom is constantly bringing like casseroles to folks or like so-and-so is sick, we've got to go do this, and then we have to go do this.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_02: And and I'm volunteering, you know, she was our Sunday school teacher, and she was like, um, like they're the sort of the people that would give the shirt off their back in the same time that they're just sort of like treading water.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I think they instilled in me the kind of way I was raised to always be thinking about how do you give back and how, you know, being selfless in certain ways to be caring for others.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_02: And so, like, I think that idea of servant leadership was ingrained in me and my siblings at a very early age, just because of the way that our parents um the way that our parents raised us.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_02: And so as I like vocationally started to look at like what I'm, you know, how doing work and and things like that, like I worked in college at an uh affordable housing nonprofit was my work study job, you know.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_02: So it was like already thinking in college about, you know, how do I show up and and how do I, how you how do you address issues?
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_02: I moved back home to Eau Claire to my hometown, and there was a lot of really cool stuff going on in our community.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, our downtown had died when I was in high school.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_02: Like everything went out to the mall, to Oakwood Mall, into like the big box stores.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but while, you know, I was at school and other places, like there was this effort to really revitalize um our downtown community.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_02: And some folks chose to headquarter some bigger businesses downtown and like it just sort of came alive again.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_02: And so when I moved home, I wanted to really be a part of that energy and I decided to start my own small business called Red's Mercantile.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_02: So we um sold main America goods, really working to support regional and local economies, so things like jewelry, pottery, home goods, things like that.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um, that I ran for like a good eight years.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I loved it because it kind of became this community hub and community center where, which I didn't necessarily foresee it being.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, we would do like yoga classes there, calligraphy center, you know, and it was kind of like a place to meet people.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_02: Book clubs and bookstores started out of it.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then I was hearing from a lot of women that were coming into my business, like, how did you do this?
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_02: How did you get going?
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_02: And um, I didn't really start my business with a ton of money.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um, like it was a lot of scrappiness and just like apple grease and like 10,000 bucks, maybe.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it wasn't like um it was very bare bones when it first opened, and we were like, this is a bit of a lift store.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, so we just didn't really have that much inventory.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_02: And after the one year of like having my shop, I decided, I had heard from so many other women who wanted to like get coffee and learn how to start a business, that I wanted to do something sort of bigger.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I had taken a social entrepreneurship class in college, and I decided to um start a grant to support other women that were interested in um starting a small business.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_02: And that snowballed and grew in a really big way.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we now serve 19 counties throughout northwest Wisconsin.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so it's a nonprofit that awards four$2,000 grants every spring and fall.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_02: And we funded things like rural mental health clinics, independent bookstores, farm-to-table restaurants.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_02: And I think when you go throughout a lot of rural Wisconsin, Dollar Generals at the end of the you know road are not what makes us communities special.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_02: It's the small businesses that really lie our main streets and add to the fabric of our communities.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_02: And so it's been really special.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, we've helped fund over 70 businesses since launching uh in 2019, and it's been really great to or 2017, and it's been just really great to see those people grow.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_02: There's some people that are just now staples really in in communities throughout this region.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_02: And so um, so because of that, we're our governor appointed me to our state economic development board where I was able to able to not just advocate for people at their kitchen table, but you know, at the board level and in a bigger way.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: All right, I want to walk through three moments with you.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: The moment that you decided to run for Congress, the feeling after the narrow loss of 2024, and then now, what what feels different this time around?
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_02: God, that's like it's such a roller coaster for it's gonna be a roller coaster for you.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, I think you know, when this seat opened up originally in 2022, it felt like to me a real opportunity to step up and to serve my community in a bigger way.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_02: Like I have been doing all this work focused on entrepreneurs and really being successful in a way that we like sort of delivered for them.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_02: And so I I saw um this race as an opportunity to really expand opportunities for people.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_02: And like I was excited.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um in my first race, we in 2022, we ran such like a grassroots campaign.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_02: Nobody knew me.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_02: I was a small business owner from Western Wisconsin.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, people knew me from my hometown, but you know what I mean?
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_02: Like, um, it was and it was scrappy, and it was like we were doing a 19 county district tour and really showing up in places that like we had had a congressman that had represented this district for 26 years.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_02: And I think like our campaign was so fresh and exciting because we were like talking about things that like I was hearing from people and like my neighbors, you know, and really, really like catching the pulse of the issues impacting people in the district.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_02: And it and it was so it's was so my voice.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I think my campaign relate remains authentic and very like true to who I am.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_02: But like I have never felt represented necessarily in Congress in a way where I'm like, wow, that person is just like really kicking ass for small business owners and like doubling down for um, you know, agriculture and enforcing antitrust law and breaking up these trusts that are screwing all of us, right?
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_02: I've never felt like invigorated sort of in that way of like there's there's this leader that really understands those things.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_02: And so I felt like there was like a gap and an opportunity, especially in knowing this place that I'm from so well, to be a real voice and somebody that can speak the language of rural Wisconsin in a very authentic way.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_02: And so, like I ran in 2022.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_02: I lost my primary, but I outperformed expectations, which is a common theme here.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_02: I ran 2024 contentious primary, won that.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_02: And then um in 2024, I lost by two points in the general election.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_02: I was really, really proud of the campaign that we ran, though, because I think it like I had experience in getting out to places and really trying to meet voters, not just in those partisan centers, like Democratic Party meetings and all of those places, you know, like, and those are that's a really, really important base.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_02: But like if we want to expand a big tent and if we want to attract more people to these values that we're talking about, it's like getting to Rudafisk lunches and church basements, it's getting to dairy breakfasts, getting to county fairs, and it's like getting to the places where people aren't talking about politics because they are worried about how they are going to be able to pay their mortgage.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_02: They're worried about getting their kid to basketball practice or they're worried about taking care of their aging parents and like if they're gonna have to go to um, you know, a nursing home.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_02: Like these are the things that like people where I live are worried about.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_02: When we talk about like political things, like they're not thinking about like coming to a rally or, you know, they don't have time for that shit because they're working, you know?
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_02: And so I thought I think like the way that I felt it was so sad.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_02: I like woke up the next day and was I felt like sure that we were gonna win because of how much work we did really talking to people.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_02: And then I was um thinking about the reasons why I first decided to run for office.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_02: And part of that was because of our family losing our farm and not wanting other farm families to like go through what we went through and like watching the way our rural economies have been really decimated, watching my dad really struggle to pay uh for his cancer drugs.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, my mom had like a six-figure hospital bill after her open heart surgery and heart attack.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm just like thinking about all those things that motivated me to run, and then seeing Derek Van Orden and seeing Trump win, and thinking about what it was gonna be like to have them representing us yet again, and knowing that the things that motivated me to run in the first place were gonna get worse.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_02: I went to our mall uh the day after the election with some sunglasses on because I've been crying.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_02: And I had Kobe's Japanese in the food court, and then I went to work.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I had to shift at the restaurant the day after the election because and I didn't take that off because I knew win or lose.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_02: Like every other American, I was gonna go have to go back to work the next day, no matter the outcome of the election.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_02: And I wanted to like remind myself of that no matter what, you know, being rooted about like where I come from, but also being rooted in like this is this is just like another day, you know.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, but like I think like I I really took some time to reflect on the things that went well and the things that didn't go well.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and we overperformed expectations.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_02: Like I got 9,000 more votes than Harris, 5,000 more votes than Senator Tammy Baldwin.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_02: And when you overperform like that, you'd you do it again.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_02: To no one's surprise, like the Trump administration came in and enforced tariffs that fucked up everything for farmers.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, we've seen uh the way that healthcare Has really um deteriorated in this district.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_02: We had two major hospitals closed in 2023, and that was before the reconciliation bill.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_02: So I spent a lot of time talking to rural hospital CEOs throughout this district about how they're working to keep their doors open.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um it's been frustrating for people that haven't seen their ACA tax credits expanded, and it's like$200 or$400 more a month for them to be able to get healthcare, right?
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um so the things that I thought about and was worried about the day after the election, they happened.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_02: Like they got worse.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_02: And so I think I got into this race a year ago, actually this month, um, to take them back on.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_02: And I feel like people are really um awake to what's happening and see who's to blame.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um but I also think it can't just be like why the other side is bad.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, what are we gonna do that's better?
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and what are we gonna do that's really going to provide opportunity and not just be like something like the Western or two evils or something like that.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_01: When you're out talking to people across western Wisconsin, what are you actually hearing and what's what's keeping people up at night right now?
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_02: Well, and that's like I asked this question, what's keeping you up at night usually?
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_02: Instead of just like, what are your top issues?
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_02: And people are like, issues?
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_02: What do you mean?
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like, what are you worried about?
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_02: You know?
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and healthcare is at the top.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, people are really with the, you know, a lot of people have used the marketplace and stuff that are entrepreneurs or that are farmers.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um, there's a lot of people that are concerned about like social security and Medicare and like security there, you know, like are these like programs that like are they gonna be protected, you know?
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I hear a lot from farmers about the impact, especially that reciprocal tear-ups have had on like our sweeping farmers.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_02: I've heard from like the tear up perspective in different situations um as it relates to like even small businesses and the disruption that's had in supply chains.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um I hear a lot of concerns just about government corruption and concerns around like the Epstein files and um, you know, nobody trusts the government anymore.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_02: Like nobody trusts politicians and like I don't either, you know.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, these are people that like, especially as you look at the Epstein files, and I think even like failure to just like expose like people in their highest power and they did those abuses, and also people that are like, you know, stock trading with insider information as members of Congress.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I think we should ban stock trading.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_02: I don't have any stocks.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, I don't really have anything to look at this, but it's just like also like I don't think people should be doing that.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_02: I'm taking the no corporate pack pledge because I also just feel like again, with this like sort of mistrust and like people are puppets to corporations.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_02: It's like you're getting money from like Tyson or JBS.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_02: Like, do you really have an incentive to break off like the four main meat processors?
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe not, right?
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_02: And so I made that pledge and I feel really good about it.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_02: And I think like our average contribution to this campaign is$44.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_02: People see me on Facebook or like whatever, and they see themselves in my candidacy and they and they get five bucks or 25 bucks.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: Why do you think Democrats have struggled to connect in rural parts of Wisconsin?
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_02: You can't just pander to the base all the time.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_02: You gotta go out and talk to people that think differently than you and be prepared not to agree and have it be okay, and not try to like you can you can build relationships and not agree on every issue, but it's about like finding what is the common problem.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_02: And like I think people are too afraid because they want to stay in like comfortable bubbles to have difficult conversations.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_02: But like I think that's a place where we can get through, you know.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I I I spend time talking to Republican mayors in my district because you know, I'm like, what are your top issues?
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what's happening with the budget in your community?
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_02: How can I be helpful in getting federal resources if I'm elected to getting a new fire station and getting the things that like we know your municipality can't pay for, um, and like having conversations that like it's like, yeah, you know, maybe we don't see eye to eye on this issue, but like we're gonna have to work together.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_02: So let's figure out a way to work together.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that you can see more of that like come together if you're willing to have those conversations.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_02: Like in Congress, it's really difficult to work across the aisle.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's a lot easier to work across the aisle as a federal office holder holder, like working with leaders from municipalities.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_02: Like at the end of the day, all politics are local and figuring out what communities in your district really need and how you can like be the through line to making sure that their needs are being met.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_02: We've got to be focusing on the economy.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I think often, you know, in my 2024 race, I felt like the top of the ticket was talking about joy and talking about all these other like issues that like when I again was knocking doors and asking people what's keeping you up at night, it wasn't like it was the things I'm talking about.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it was like I can't, the minimum wage isn't enough.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm I'm trying to like make sure that like if I get in a car accident or have a medical emergency, I'm not like one emergency away from like losing my house or like not making my mortgage payment, you know.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_02: And like when the tickets doing like Beyonce concerts that most people in our area can't afford, it feels like you don't really know who we are.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, let's talk about it.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_01: Why do you think Derek Van Orden is vulnerable right now?
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_02: Derek is a unique character.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um he is like Trump's lackey.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_02: He's like such a um kind of like party darling.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I feel like he doesn't really have a lot of original thoughts or independent thoughts of like, what could this district really need, need, you know, and like what could he really do?
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um, he's sort of a rubber stamp for Republicans.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that we're looking for more from our elected officials, people that um show up.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_02: Like he's failed to host any sort of in-person town hall in the district to talk about his votes, to talk about policies, to get feedback, to get insight from like what people need, what they're worried about, how he can address those things in Congress, how he could create policy that improves people's lives.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_02: Like he just like sort of hides in his order on the internet and like tweets every day.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_02: And I think, like, in addition to being sort of Trump's lackey and voting lockstep with the far right, I think that he lacks like the decorum that we look for as people from western Wisconsin.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_02: Like where I'm from, you'll meet some of the most hardworking people that you've ever met in your life, and they're also humble.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think I'd ever describe Derek as humble.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, they're people that like put their head down and get things done, right?
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_02: And he's more interested in making headlines.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_02: Like, we don't want our we don't want our members of Congress to make actual headlines.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_02: We want our members of Congress to get things done.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_02: The way that we're doing every day in our um, you know, in our classrooms, um on the uh factory line, on the farm.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_02: Like we want results, and he really hasn't delivered anything.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_02: He's in fact made it harder, especially for a lot of his core constituencies.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: What do voters in your district who supported Trump need to hear from you?
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_02: I think that they want to hear um that we're not going to be enacting tariffs in a swinging way uh that doesn't take account in a marketplace and your crop season and disrupting that in the middle of it.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_02: Um I think that's part of the way that tariffs were enacted is they weren't planned for and people were just presented with them.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_02: And on the back end, folks don't want a handout report.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_02: Like so the way that the Trump administration enacted those, saw people take losses and then just try to give them money on the back end, shows just how out of touch they are with what agricultural leaders need and what farmers need to be able to not just survive but to thrive.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_02: The other conversations that I have with people are um around the ACA.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_02: Like I think that even the tax credit expansion for three years is sort of still a band-aid.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_02: In three more years, we're gonna kind of be back at that same place of like, okay, should we should we expand ACA tax credits again?
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_02: I think what we really need is a public option.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I talked to folks about that, but like Republicans in particular that are like, well, we don't want Medicare for all.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, I'm not saying Medicare for all.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_02: I'm saying keep your private insurance if you like it.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_02: But let's potentially introduce a public option where we could have people buy into programs like Medicare, which would help with solvency for the program as a whole.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_02: That's a pragmatic approach to healthcare.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um And I think when I ha when I have that conversation with people, they nod their head like, Yes, you know.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I was at a county fair like a a year a couple of years ago here, um, where I was handing out my literature and this guy goes, Well, what are you?
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, Well, what do you mean what am I?
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_02: And he said, Are you a Democrat or are you a Republican?
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_02: I said, I'm a Democrat, but I'm a good one.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_02: And I winked at him.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_02: But he handed my lip back and I was like, Well, you haven't listened to what I had to say.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, I want to make sure that our parents and grandparents can age with dignity.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_02: So right now, my parents, they go on a one-sier trip to Mexico to get their dental work done because it's cheaper to do there than it is in our own country.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_02: And he said, Well, I know people that do that.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_02: It's a one-sier trip for most people where we live to get out of the cold, but they get their dental work done.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_02: Or they bring some exosylum back, right?
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like our parents and grandparents should be able to age with dignity in this all in our own country and we should expand Medicare to cover vision dental and hearing.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_02: People are interested in like ideas that meet real needs, you know, and that aren't just sort of like vague talking points.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_02: Like a lot of times when I talk about like, you know, I'm running to increase healthcare access and affordability.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like if I said that to somebody in my district, they'd be like, well, what the fuck does that mean?
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_02: We need to have some concrete ideas that, especially for Democrats, if you win a majority, which with the help of blue dogs, like we likely will do.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_02: What are we gonna do with that then?
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_02: And like what kind of policies are we gonna introduce?
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that we need to lead with pragmatic policies that are gonna deliver some real results, not just for a few, but for many.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_01: How important is it for someone to actually be from the place they're representing?
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's hugely important.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_02: I think a lot of times we see the way like recruitment sort of happens sometimes for people that are running for office.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like, and I've experienced this myself.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's like how much money can you raise, especially in my first races when I like I didn't have some role dex.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't have like I didn't come from money.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't go to like a prestigious like school.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_02: I went to like a school just over the border in Minnesota.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like, if you don't raise resources, it's like you're just not, you're sort of like not taken seriously.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I think that what we need to do is like identify people that are really leaders in their community, people that are, you know, leading in the classroom, that are running small businesses, that are union members to like step off the sidelines to run, because I think they have like this relatability piece of like they've lived failed policies.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_02: So they're not gonna just do whatever somebody rubber asks them to rubber stamp, right?
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_02: They're going to do the things that they know that are best because they've had those lived experiences that they're gonna actually fight like hell to make things different.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_02: People like Derek Van Orden, like Derek isn't like born and raised here.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, he was also in the military, but like he, you know, I think when he came back here to Wisconsin, he's lived in multiple places sort of throughout Wisconsin and even like if you go north of Highway A, it's a really different place than it is down here, you know, in Eau Claire Lacrosse, and it's really different than it is Madison and Milwaukee.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like you go to different parts of the state, and you really have to like I think there's like this cultural understanding that needs to happen too.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_02: When you're really ingrained in a community for a lot of years, in the way that I have, like I went to Eau Claire Public Schools, um, you know, showed cows at the fair, um was involved in 4-H, was you know, like did all it just like you really understand a place and then like even coming back here and choosing to like start a small business here and run a nonprofit here and like you just feel a no nose sort of in your bones and like the way you grew up and like an understanding of heritage and like nostalgia, and you can really understand where people came from and sort of what they yearn for when times were better.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I think that's especially true when it comes to like our rural communities that used to be like just really thriving and it used to just really work together and work across the aisle, and we had we had strong public schools and we had um, you know, great farming communities, and we weren't having to go to referendum every year to try to fund those public schools.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_02: And we were, you know, like you can understand like where we come from and like why it's so important to fight for those things and like keep that like drive alive.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_01: All right, my final question for people who feel like they're losing faith in politics and the American dream right now, what gives you hope?
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_02: I'm really glad you asked me that question because it's something I've been thinking a lot about.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_02: I told you about how I asked people like what's keeping you up at night.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I feel like that really identifies the problem without a lot of like solution or things to aspire to.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_02: And so I replace that question as I'm out leading people with like what's getting you out of bed in the morning?
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_02: Like, why are you going to work?
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what's keeping you motivated?
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_02: What's keeping you motivated to like care for your mom or you know, that might have Alzheimer's?
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_02: What's keeping you motivated um with your special needs child and like making sure that they have the resources they need in school?
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_02: Like what's keeping you motivated, um, you know, to provide uh for your family when it's like have to pay your electrical bill, have to pay your mortgage.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like those are like sort of the stories then that it kind of it reminds people of the hope that they have for like what does the what does the future look like for them and their family?
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that that's a word that I've been coming back to.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_02: And it's something that a lot of our leaders used to run on in particular, right?
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_02: You know, is like finding that hope for what's better.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_02: And when I meet people and I talk to them about that, like when there's a problem in our community, we come together.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_02: Like there's nobody that's coming to save us.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_02: Like we're going to save ourselves.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_02: Like there's no perfectly worded statement from leadership in the Democratic Party.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_02: There's no national agenda that's gonna come down and deliver the answers to the problems that we have right now.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_02: It's gonna come from us, it's gonna come from the inside of our communities out and not from some person helicoptering in for some fancy rally.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_02: It's gonna come from us pulling together.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_02: Like when somebody is sick in our community, we're the first to show up with a casserole.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_02: If there's a new war, baby, we're putting together a meal train.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um, if there's a problem, we start a business to address it.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_02: We run for office, like city council or school board.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_02: And like I'm I'm willing to bet an arm on people like that.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not going to win this race unless people choose to really come together, decide that they want something different.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_02: They want a different member of Congress representing them, and they want something different for their lives, um, and that they have hope for what like our future can really look like.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_02: I think that there is a lot to be hopeful for.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_02: I think there's a lot of opportunity if we just really pull together and decide that we like want those things.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_01: What stands out about Rebecca Cook isn't just what she says.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's the way she says it and it's where it comes from.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_01: A farm that didn't make it, a family that kept going anyway, and a life built working, not watching.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_01: That shows up in how she talks about Western Wisconsin.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_01: Not as a map, not as a strategy, but as a place she knows and loves.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe more importantly, as a place she believes can still come together and do something different.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_01: If this conversation meant something to you, please check out our other episodes and share this one with someone who might need to hear it.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_01: And as always, thank you so much for listening to Blue Dog Radio.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: And the back of the North Eight Gold, I don't mind gold, up to the other thing, the dollar died.