LA CROSSE, WI — Rebecca Cooke wants Wisconsin voters to believe she has suddenly become the leading opponent of data centers.

There’s just one problem. Her own professional record tells a very different story. 

In a recent report, it was revealed that Cooke spent years in leadership roles for establishments that have a lengthy history of lobbying for data center development in Wisconsin. 

Cooke served on the board of the Wisconsin Technology Council, where they “pushed specifically for large-scale data centers from Microsoft in Mount Pleasant and Meta in Beaver Dam,” while she was employed there.

Currently, Cooke is a Senior Visiting Fellow at Third Way, a left wing think tank that has directly advocated for continued data-center development. Third Way’s own August 2026 policy paper says data centers are “essential infrastructure for America’s long-term economic growth,” and rejects moratoriums.

Third Way’s publicly reported funding includes money from Breakthrough Energy, an organization associated with major investments in the development and expansion of AI initiatives and data centers.

According to the report, Cooke’s campaign has declined to explain her ties to both organizations.

Congress Derrick Van Orden has laid out his data center non-negotiables:

  • Local Control: Local communities must have final say over projects and no development imposed without local input or consent.
  • Protect Farmland: Productive Wisconsin farmland cannot be paved over.
  • Ratepayer Protection: There must be signed agreements with utilities required before construction that developers must cover new energy and grid infrastructure costs. Wisconsin families must be protected from rate increases.
  • Protect Water: Strict prevention of local water pollution or depletion. Closed-loop and air-cooled systems utilized.
  • Existing Infrastructure: Must be built on existing infrastructure such as military bases for mitigation measures required to address noise pollution.

This week, Van Orden voted for the bipartisan Ratepayer Protection Act, which would require state regulators to ensure massive electricity users, including data centers, bear the costs of the generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure needed to serve them.

“Rebecca Cooke is a fraud. She spent years working with organizations pushing data center development in Wisconsin, and now she’s trying to rewrite her own record because it’s inconvenient for her campaign. This latest stunt is just another example of Cooke’s shameless political con.” – Grace Kim, Campaign Spox