Rebecca Cooke, a Democrat running for Wisconsin’s Third Congressional District, called her hometown of Eau Claire a racist city in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death in May 2020.
On the Instagram page of Red’s Mercantile, a retail store in downtown Eau Claire Cooke operated for seven years, she lamented the fact that she was “back living in my predominantly white hometown.”
“MAGA flags wave high in parts of this area, but it’s the quiet racism that has infiltrated, that’s always been there and has never been challenged or called out,” she wrote. “We like to hold places that are nostalgic on a pedestal, I’ve held EC [Eau Claire] on one for years, but what you are seeing in MSP [Minneapolis-St. Paul] is also institutionalized in this city, in a multitude of ways if you take the time to examine it.”
Cooke did not elaborate on what precisely made Eau Claire so racist or how the bigotry that supposedly killed Floyd in the Twin Cities was “also institutionalized” in it. She also encouraged Red’s Mercantile customers to examine their “white privilege” and use it to “be an ally” and change their buying habits to be more woke.
“Use your white privilege to be an ally. Hire minorities. Amplify movements with your platform,” she preached. “Buy from minority-owned businesses – often and monthly. Don’t just be lip service, put your $$ where you mouth is.”
Cooke then instructed her presumably white clientele to refrain from “leaning on [their] POC friends” because it is “exhausting to them.”
“How will you volunteer and give of your time and energy? How will you educate yourself?” Cooke asked rhetorically. “Don’t lean on your POC [people of color] friends to figure it out, it’s exhausting to them.”
Cooke is challenging incumbent Republican Congressman Derrick Van Orden, who defeated her in 2024 to win his second term in office.
