Welcome to our weekly DC Wrap, where we write about Wisconsin’s congressional delegation. Sign up here to receive the newsletter directly.
Quotes of the week
No money to make life more affordable for families, invest in our children’s futures, or keep people on their health insurance. But there’s all the money in the world for a war in the Middle East.
–U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Milwaukee, on the White House’s proposed 2027 budget, which asks for $1.7 trillion in military spending while cutting $73 billion from domestic programs.
I support ending this war once and for all. And there’s a cost to ending the menace, the threat, the brutality of the Iranian regime.
– U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Oshkosh, on a Harvard report estimating the Iran war could cost taxpayers $1 trillion.
This week’s news
— Dem challenger Rebecca Cooke outraised GOP U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden by nearly $1.1 million over the first three months of the year and pulled ahead of him for cash on hand, according to their latest filings.
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Cooke, who leads a nonprofit, reported $2.4 million in receipts during the first quarter, compared to the $1.3 million that Van Orden, R-Prairie du Chien, raised.
She also reported $4.4 million in the bank, topping the $3.8 million in cash that Van Orden had at the end of March. At the end of 2025, Van Orden had a $184,863 advantage over Cooke for cash on hand.
Cooke’s haul more than doubled the $1.2 million she raised over the final three months of 2025.
Cooke reported nearly $1.7 million from individual donors, including $491,434 from those giving less than $200. The latter is often viewed as a sign of a candidate’s small-dollar network.
She listed $107,450 from PACs and $645,509 in transfers while reporting $551,307 in expenses over the three-month period.
Van Orden, the top Dem target in Wisconsin’s congressional delegation, reported $753,641 from individuals, including $245,654 in donations of $200 or less.
He received $204,501 from PACs and listed $363,428 in transfers. He also spent $255,359 over the period.
Cooke faces Eau Claire City Council President Emily Berge and Rodney Rave, a former Ho-Chunk Nation legislator, for the Dem nomination in western Wisconsin’s 3rd CD.
Berge reported $176,795 in receipts, $149,726 in expenses and $96,878 in the bank.
Rave, who didn’t report any fundraising during the last quarter of 2025, didn’t have a report filed with the FEC by early evening yesterday.
— Michael Alfonso raised more from individual donors than any of his GOP rivals in the 7th CD during the first quarter of the year, partly thanks to those giving him the maximum contribution for the cycle.
Alfonso, a first-time candidate, reported $601,291 in receipts during the three-month period and $731,819 in the bank to end March.
He reported $477,291 from individual donors with just $12,253 of that from those giving less than $200. A check of his filing showed 39 individuals this period gave him the maximum of $7,000, split evenly between the primary and general election.
Alfonso, the son-in-law of U.S. Transportation Secretary and former U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy, reported maximum contributions from Illinois businessman Dick Uihlein, Dallas developer Ross Perot Jr. and Middleton developer Terrence Wall, among others.
He also listed $124,000 from PACs, including several with links to the transportation sector.
That includes: $3,500 from the American Council of Engineering Companies, $2,500 from the American Cement Association PAC, $2,500 from Southwest Airlines Co. PAC, $2,000 from the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association Rock PAC and $2,000 from the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 139.
He also reported a $2,500 contribution from the Air Space Intelligence Inc. PAC. It’s linked to a software company that counts federal agencies among its clients.
Paul Wassgren, a businessman and attorney, listed nearly $1.8 million in receipts and $1.5 million spent for the three-month period, tops in the field. That was largely due to $1.7 million in loans he gave the company and a $1.2 million loan repayment.
He listed less than $4,000 in donations from individuals and finished March with $1.7 million in the bank.
Among the other GOP contenders:
Jessi Ebben, who ran unsuccessfully for the GOP nomination for the 3rd CD in 2022, reported $80,777 in receipts, $46,833 in expenses and $299,169 in the bank. She raised $69,085 from individuals.
Kevin Hermening, a financial adviser and former Marathon County GOP chair, reported $57,449 in receipts, $189,400 in disbursements and $868,345 in cash. He raised $22,698 from individuals.
— Rebecca Cooke is donating $5,000 to charities to divest her campaign of donations from former Dem U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell.
Cooke, who’s seeking the Dem nomination to take on U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Prairie du Chien, said she will also no longer acknowledge Swalwell’s endorsement given the sexual assault allegations.
Swalwell’s Remedy PAC gave Cooke five $1,000 donations between August 2024 and September 2025.
The allegations against him include from a former staffer who says he sexually assaulted her while she was too drunk to consent. Swalwell, who has denied the allegations, announced this week he was dropping out of the race for California governor.
“I’m appalled by the allegations about Eric Swalwell and proud of these women for their courage to come forward,” Cooke said.
The groups that will receive the donations are: Stepping Stones, St. Francis Food Pantry, Second Harvest – Southwest Wisconsin, Wafer Food Pantry and Adams Food Pantry.
Van Orden dismissed the action as a political move.
“It only took her a couple days and massive pressure from the media. This is not leadership, this is political convenience for her,” Van Orden said in a post on X.
— Gov. Tony Evers is asking Wisconsin’s members of Congress to reject White House efforts to bar states from regulating artificial intelligence.
“Wisconsin has led the way in taking bipartisan, targeted action to keep our kids and families safe from some of AI’s most dangerous misuses,” Evers wrote in a Tuesday letter. “Limiting states’ ability to protect our communities and respond to rapidly evolving risks will leave Wisconsinites less safe, our kids less protected, and bad actors less accountable.”
The Trump administration has called on Congress to pass legislation that would override state-level restrictions on AI. A broad policy framework of the legislation was released Friday.
The White House also asks the legislative branch to refrain from creating new federal rulemaking bodies to regulate the industry; to streamline federal permitting for data centers; and to create new guardrails for the technology relating to intellectual property and government censorship.
Evers wrote a letter to President Donald Trump in December expressing concern about the administration’s “reckless” approach to AI regulation.
“Yet still, he signed an executive order directing the U.S. Department of Justice to seek out and challenge state AI laws on the books and threatened to withhold federal funding from states like Wisconsin for enacting basic AI protections,” Evers wrote this week.
His letter highlights laws the state passed regulating the industry since 2023, including prohibitions on AI-generated child pornography, disclosure requirements around the use of AI in campaign ads, and barring the use of “deepfake” images for coercion or harassment.
Evers noted these laws passed with bipartisan support.
“Broad federal preemption would put all of that progress in jeopardy,” he wrote.
— U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Janesville, is among the authors of a letter demanding donor platform ActBlue release documents it allegedly withheld from a House committee.
Steil chairs the Committee on House Administration, one of three House committees that has been investigating the Democratic fundraising giant since 2023.
A Tuesday letter sent by Steil and two other committee chairs demands the donor platform release documents the congressmen say were improperly withheld from a subpoena request.
Those documents were highlighted in an April 2 report by the New York Times detailing ActBlue’s lawyers warning the donor platform’s chief executive could have misled GOP investigators on how the platform vetted donations to ensure they were not illegally coming from foreign nationals.
“Recent reporting by the New York Times confirms our initial findings and strongly suggests that ActBlue deliberately obstructed the Committees’ investigation, including through misleading statements and noncompliance with our subpoenas,” the letter reads, adding the donor platform’s actions “has impeded the Committees’ ability to develop legislation protecting our elections against fraudulent political contributions and foreign interference.”
Republican Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, and James Comer of Kentucky, who chairs Oversight and Government Reform, co-signed the letter.
Steil said in a Tuesday statement that the Times’ reporting “raises serious questions about whether ActBlue’s CEO intentionally misled Congress at the onset of this investigation.
“We will continue our investigation and keep all options on the table as we seek the truth,” the statement ends.
Posts of the week
ICYMI
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel op-ed: Sen. Tammy Baldwin: Tired of sports streaming wars? I’ve got a bill for that.
Wisconsin Public Radio: Sen. Ron Johnson on Iran war
The Hill: GOP senator says US has not ‘won’ Iran war yet, contradicting Trump
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: When it comes to using the F-word, Pocan and Van Orden have few rivals
WISN 12: Sen. Tammy Baldwin demands answers from USPS over Wisconsin mail delays, staffing shortages
PBS Wisconsin: US Rep. Mark Pocan on voter intensity and the 2026 elections
Spectrum News 1: Renewed spotlight on Wisconsin congressional race after spring election
New York Times: House Republicans step up scrutiny of Democratic fund-raising giant
