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Blue Dog Democrat Rebecca Cooke, a Wisconsin congressional candidate, discussed in an interview Thursday how she is trying to set things right after she accused her party of abandoning rural and working-class voters in recent years.
She appeared on the “Politics War Room” podcast with co-hosts James Carville and Al Hunt, known for calling out the far left of the Democratic Party.
“I don’t wanna put you in a box, but you say you’re a Blue Dog and a New Democrat. Tell me what it means to be a Blue Dog Democrat,” Hunt asked.
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“They are folks that are fiscally conservative, socially liberal, are really working from, like, a place-based perspective,” Cooke said. “They’re people that understand rural Democrats, working-class Democrats, that are showing up in rural communities and working-class spaces that historically our party has left behind.
“And that’s, like, I think why I was connected with them originally or why I — you know, what they were doing resonated with me so much.”
Rebecca Cooke talked about her working-class origins and her work as a waitress, suggesting that doing such jobs gives people like her more of a connection with Americans’ real kitchen table issues than many other politicians. (Kayla Wolf/Getty Images)
She cited multiple examples of other moderate Democrats who “understand how to talk to people in rural America, where I feel like a lot of folks in the Democratic Party don’t anymore, and I certainly do.
“I think we’ve built strong coalitions across this district with farmers, you know, healthcare workers, people in rural communities that feel really left behind,” Cooke added.
Hunt cited her past comments, asking, “You’ve said that, in Congress, Republicans are too right-wing, and congressional Democrats are too left-wing. Specifically, how has Hakeem Jeffries [been] too left-wing?”
“I’m talking just, I think, in general when I talk. I did an ad last cycle where I was standing in the middle of the road on my parents’ farm talking about how folks in D.C. are either too far left or too far right, and we need more people in the middle that want to work across the aisle to get things done,” she said.
“I’m somebody that wants to work in a really bipartisan way and not put, you know, party before people or politics before people, and I think that’s … what’s important.”
Cooke suggested the Democratic Party needs more candidates from a working-class background, citing her own experience.
“I’ve been a waitress since I was 16 years old,” she said. “I’ve run a small business here in my community, but I also waitress to make ends meet. I did some fellowships last year also with the group called Third Way, around, you know, how do we get more working-class folks to run for office? How do we connect more with working-class voters in general?
“And I’m proud of that work because I think there’s this disconnect in the party. And when we run working-class people, folks come out to vote because people trust those people, right? Folks trust me because I have some of the same lived experience that they’ve had, right?” Cooke added.
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Cooke’s campaign noted a recent statement from her that if she sees somebody in a MAGA hat, she’s going to shake their hand and introduce herself. (Brett Carlsen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
She cited other examples from her life, saying many politicians cannot relate to such experiences.
“We’ve had to sell our cows because of the low price of milk,” Cooke said. “I’ve had to struggle to compete with the Amazons of the world in running a small business. I know what it’s like to sign the front of a paycheck as well as the back of a paycheck, right? And I know what it’s like to do hourly wage work.
“There’s a lot of members of Congress that have never done those sorts of things. So, when they’re making policy that’s impacting working families, they’re out of touch with that.”
Digital reached out to Cooke’s campaign, asking what specific issues she would push for the Democratic Party to moderate on to win back rural and working-class voters.
“Rebecca grew up on a dairy farm and has been campaigning in every county, rural and urban, in the 3rd district because she wants to earn support from Wisconsinites of all backgrounds, including Republicans and Trump supporters,” a spokesperson said.
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Rebecca Cooke grew up on a farm and suggested that experiences like that have made her more politically aware of everyday kitchen table issues than most other politicians. (iStock)
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“On MSNOW this week, she said if she sees someone with a MAGA hat, she’s going to shake their hand and introduce herself.
“She’s running to fight for working people and has no problem disagreeing with other Democrats, like when she said she’d ‘stand up to Democrats to fight for a secure border.’ She ‘support[s] funding the police fully and doesn’t believe in universal student loan forgiveness because it only sticks a Band-Aid on a structural problem.’”
