Kirk Bangstad, owner of Minocqua Brewing Company and Democrat candidate for Wisconsin governor, has publicly accused Rebecca Cooke, a Democrat candidate for Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, of stealing donor names from his 2016 congressional campaign list while employed as his paid political consultant and fundraiser.
In a Facebook post on the Minocqua Brewing Company page, Bangstad announced the brewery’s endorsement of Emily Berge, Cooke’s Democrat primary challenger, explicitly citing the alleged donor-list theft. He stated that Cooke “stole names from his list of donors” while serving as head fundraiser for his short-lived 2016 bid against then-Rep. Sean Duffy and used them to raise funds for her own campaigns against Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden.
Federal Election Commission records confirm that Bangstad’s 2016 campaign committee paid Cooke and her consulting firm, Cooke Strategy, approximately $12,300 for services. Cooke previously listed work on the Bangstad campaign on her now-deactivated company website, according to archives reviewed by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Wisconsin Watch.
Bangstad announced his gubernatorial campaign on May 2. The brewery’s endorsement of Berge in the 3rd District race represents a direct intra-party rebuke of Cooke, who has run for the seat multiple times and narrowly lost to Van Orden in 2024.
Cooke, who presents herself as a waitress and dairy farmer’s daughter from Eau Claire, has previously criticized Bangstad’s inflammatory social media posts, including those celebrating a foiled assassination attempt on President Donald Trump.
The dispute underscores the rocky relationships with certain factions of Wisconsin Democrats. Bangstad, a self-described progressive activist whose recent antics have drawn harsh rebuke from fellow Democrats, has endorsed Berge while distancing himself from Cooke and others, such as Mandela Barnes, whom he has labeled “corporate Dems.”
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel fact-checked the consulting relationship on May 6, confirming Cooke’s paid role based on FEC filings. Conservatives have highlighted Cooke’s past professional ties to Bangstad as evidence that her moderate image does not align with her history as a Democrat operative. Now she has to contend with Bangstad’s accusations of shady dealings.
