Wisconsin Right Now

Third District Congressman Rep. Derrick Van Orden defeated Rebecca Cooke in a race that was called late Wednesday morning by multiple outlets. Van Orden, the Republican incumbent, had 51.35% of the vote with 211,696 to Cooke’s 48.65% with 200,556 votes in the district that includes Eau Claire and areas south of the city and extending east toward Oshkosh. Incumbents won seven of the eight U.S. House seats in Wisconsin as the Republicans hold a 6-2 advantage in the state. Republican Tony Wied topped Democrat Kristin Lyerly in the 8th District to fill an empty seat held by Republican Mike Gallagher until his April 24 resignation. Wied received 57.3% of the vote to Lyerly’s 42.7%. Republican incumbent Reps. Bryan Steil (1st District), Scott Fitzgerald (5th District), Glenn Grothman (6th District) and Tom Tiffany (7th District) won races along with Democratic incumbents Mark Pocan (2nd District) and Gwen Moore (4th District). Pocan represents a district including Madison and Moo...

Western Wisconsin’s congressman says he was assaulted at Milwaukee’s Republican National Convention, but a women’s group disagrees. Republican Congressman Derrick Van Orden took social media Tuesday to say a protester with the group Code Pink assaulted him while he was standing in line at the RNC. “While standing in line to enter an event at the RNC today, I was assaulted by what appeared to be a member of the pro-Hamas group CODEPINK. A nearby police officer witnessed this assault and I understand they have been arrested,” Van Orden said. “This appears to be an incident of political violence and I will never tolerate this. Regardless of the severity of the violence, political violence is political violence.” Code Pink almost immediately said Van Orden was the one who bumped into who they called a “visibly Palestinian” woman. “CODEPINK's Palestine Organizer Nour [Jaghama] has been unjustly arrested at the RNC after a congressman shoved past her and had her arrested on fal...

A Northwoods’ congressman says he has the science on his side in the debate over what to do about the gray wolf. Republican Congressman Tom Tiffany got his plan to take the gray wolf off the endangered species list through the House. It was a close vote, just 209 to 205, and the plan faces a dim future in the U.S. Senate. Still, Tiffany said there’s more than enough evidence that the gray wolf population is large enough to remove it from the protected list. “The science is clear; the gray wolf has met and exceeded recovery goals,” Tiffany said in a statement. “[This vote] represents an important first step towards restoring local control over the skyrocketing gray wolf population in Wisconsin.” Tiffany said there have been plenty of attacks on dogs, deer and cattle in Wisconsin that prove his point. Keith Mark, founder and CEO of Hunter Nation, said the proposal to de-list the gray wolf should get a vote in the Senate. “Wildlife should not be a partisan issue. Unmanaged w...

  A congressman from north Texas has introduced a bill that would require federal agents to screen everyone who enters the country illegally against the federal terrorist watch list. The bill was introduced as more than 200 known or suspected terrorists (KSTs) have already been apprehended attempting to enter the country this fiscal year. U.S. Rep. Roger Williams, a Republican whose district lies west and northwest of Fort Worth, introduced HR 7733, the Identifying Potential Terrorist at the Border Act of 2024. It would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to require U.S. Customs and Border Protection to “take into and maintain custody over an alien until the commissioner cross references the name of such alien with the terrorist screening database and a result for such cross reference is received by the commissioner.” When announcing the bill, Williams said, “We are a land of laws, and it is past time this Administration acts like it. [President] Joe Biden is encour...

A Wisconsin Republican congressman is amping-up the war of words against TikTok. Congressman Mike Gallagher was on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures over the weekend, and talked about China and its influence over TikTok. “TikTok should be banned. Senator Marco Rubio and I have legislation that does exactly that. TikTok is digital fentanyl addicting our kids, and just like actual fentanyl, it ultimately goes back to the Chinese Communist Party.,” Gallagher said. TikTok is owned by a Chinese tech firm called ByteDance. The company says more than a billion people use TikTok each month. Gallagher says that means China is essentially spying on a billion people each month, including a lot of young people in America. “TikTok is owned by ByteDance. ByteDance is controlled by the CCP. That means the CCP can track your location. It can track your keystrokes. It can censor your news. Why would we give our foremost adversary that amount of power?” Gallagher asked. Gallagher’s criticism...