Democratic congressional candidate Rebecca Cooke has made opposition to data center expansion one of the defining issues of her Congressional campaign against Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden.
Cooke’s latest ad touts her support for a moratorium on data center development while saying she does not want to be “beholden to any of these big tech companies” and has pledged not to accept corporate PAC money. However, a review of her public records reveals an entirely different story.
Cooke is currently a Senior Visiting Fellow at Third Way, a Washington-based Democratic think tank that has publicly advocated continued development of data centers.
She also previously served on the board of the Wisconsin Technology Council, an organization that has promoted Wisconsin’s emergence as a data-center destination and lobbied on legislation providing favorable outcomes for data centers.
Cooke is campaigning to halt data center development while simultaneously working with organizations that support the opposite.
Cooke’s Current Third Way role
Third Way’s own website identifies Cooke as a Senior Visiting Fellow and says she will lead a project designed to “bring more working-class voices into the decision-making.” Recently, FOX and MJS reported that Rebecca Cooke worked for Third Way and was paid roughly $30,000 for her work.
The organization also notes that Cooke previously served on the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) board after being appointed by Gov. Tony Evers — an organization that actively supports and administers state programs for data centers.
Third Way has not called for a nationwide halt to data center construction. In an April 2026 policy memo addressing electricity affordability and artificial-intelligence growth, Third Way explicitly rejected calls for a moratorium.
The organization has been a prominent advocate for continued data center development. It described a moratorium as “misguided,” arguing that banning data centers would not address the underlying electricity and infrastructure problems.
While Cooke is telling voters she is “in huge favor of a moratorium,” the organization for which she currently serves as a senior fellow has publicly argued against a moratorium. Not exactly the work of someone who will “bring more working-class voices into the decision-making process” with 76% of registered Wisconsin voters believing that the costs of data centers outweigh their benefits, according to a Marquette University Law School Poll
The Wisconsin Technology Council Connection
Cooke’s connection to Wisconsin’s technology development establishment goes back even further. Her 2023 federal financial disclosure identifies her as a board member of the Wisconsin Technology Council. The council’s own 2023 materials likewise list Cooke as a board member. The connection becomes particularly relevant when examining the council’s position on data centers.
In 2023, Tech Council President Tom Still wrote in favor of data centers saying that “Microsoft hyperscale data center need not be the last in Wisconsin.” He argued there were “many reasons” Microsoft should build its $1 billion Mount Pleasant data center.
That same year, a massive wave of multi-billion-dollar hyperscale data center announcements and groundbreakings for projects such as Microsoft in Mount Pleasant and Meta in Beaver Dam were supported by the Wisconsin Tech Council.
The following year, Cooke’s 2024 financial disclosures once again has her listed as a board member of Wisconsin’s Technology Council.
The Tech Council highlighted a data center expansion in Northeast Wisconsin under the headline “New data center to boost region’s economy, connectivity.”
In 2025, the council published coverage describing Wisconsin as an emerging “data center hot spot,” highlighting the state’s growing attractiveness to hyperscale data-center developers. It has actively promoted data centers as an economic and technological opportunity for Wisconsin.
The Tech Council has also been directly involved in state legislative discussions involving data centers.
Wisconsin’s official lobbying database lists the Wisconsin Technology Council as supporting SB 241, a pro-data center bill concerning tax-incremental-financing districts containing qualified data centers. The state database records show four hours of lobbying efforts by the council on the bill during 2025.
In August 2026, Cooke launched a television advertisement calling for a data-center moratorium. In the ad, she said she had taken a corporate PAC pledge because she did not want to be “beholden to any of these big tech companies.”
The advertisement came out as data centers became a major political issue across western Wisconsin.
In Menomonie, city officials had already dealt with a proposed $1.6 billion data center project involving hundreds of acres of land. The debate raised many of the same questions now appearing in Cooke’s campaign — electricity demand, farm land use, and local control. Cooke has made those concerns central to her campaign.
So while Cooke is now portraying herself as an outsider fighting powerful interests over data centers and hitting her opponent Derrick Van Orden for data centers, she previously worked for organizations that promoted and continue to promote data center development in Wisconsin.
Rep. Derrick Van Orden’s Stance
Rep. Derrick Van Orden’s stance on data centers is the opposite of handing out blank checks to big tech. DVO says “he has a deep love for his state and country. He understands that there is no higher calling than serving the American people.”
Van Orden is putting Wisconsin first. He says Wisconsin communities have the final say, productive farmland remains as farmland and will not get converted to data centers, solar or wind farms. Data centers do not break ground until they cover the costs of new sources of power they require so families are not stuck with the bill. Cooling must minimize water use with closed-loop and air-cooled systems wherever feasible.
DVO says Wisconsin should prioritize locations with existing infrastructure rather than placing massive facilities in the middle of communities and rural farmland. Existing buildings and other appropriate sites should be considered before developing new sites to address noise pollution.
He argues those positions let the state compete in AI without handing over family farms, disrupting aquifers and groundwater, or increasing energy costs for the ratepayer.
You can find DVO’s stance on data centers here. More to come on this topic in the weeks ahead. The Heartland Post will continue to follow this story.
