Nearly 900 miles from the southwest corner of his district, U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden appeared at President Donald Trump’s Dallas convention Wednesday afternoon to argue that the healthcare policies he and Trump have enacted are benefiting rural Wisconsinites.
Van Orden represents Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District and his campaign against Democrat Rebecca Cooke is set to be one of the most hotly contested races in the country as Democrats seek to win back majority control of the House.
During his two terms, Van Orden has been a staunch Trump ally, often taking a bombastic, confrontational tone and drawing criticism from opponents for his treatment of constituents.
But onstage on Wednesday, as Republicans held a rare midterm convention while Trump’s approval rating plummets to record lows and Democrats express confidence they’ll win competitive races across the country, Van Orden and his fellow Republicans sought to sell a softer version of their record.
“Whether you choose to live in a city or a village like my beautiful wife Sarah Jane and I do, you deserve high-quality, readily available, and actually affordable healthcare,” Van Orden said. “You know who else knows this? Our great president Donald J. Trump. He is fighting to make quality healthcare a reality for everyday Americans.”
Last year, Van Orden voted for the Trump-signed One Big Beautiful Bill Act. In his speech, he said the bill, and the tax cuts it enacted, brought millions of dollars in funding for rural hospitals in Wisconsin.
“This massive investment would not have been possible without President Trump’s Working Families Tax Cut Act,” Van Orden said. “And shamefully, shamefully, not one Democrat voted for it. So, from Washington to Wisconsin, Democrats spent months demonizing the tax cuts we delivered.”
In fact, the bill made huge cuts to Medicaid, which for Wisconsin will result in losing $7 billion in federal healthcare funds over the next 10 years, an analysis by KFF found last year. In his speech, Van Orden also touted more than $200 million that will go to Wisconsin hospitals because of the law, but that is far less than those hospitals would have received without the Medicaid cuts.
“I worked with President Trump and Republicans in Congress to level up our Medicaid assessments and bringing billions of dollars back to Wisconsin’s Badger Care program,” Van Orden said. “So these investments have made a real difference to real people all over rural America, including back home at Black River Falls Memorial Hospital. It’s where our awesome doctors can now spend less time worrying about the future of the hospital and more time taking care of their patients, who are their neighbors and that they love.”
An analysis conducted last year by the centrist think tank Third Way found that after the enactment of the Medicaid cuts, hospitals in Van Orden’s district are projected to lose more than $42 million in annual revenue.
Van Orden has on several occasions gotten into arguments with constituents over the effect of the law and has falsely denied that Medicaid was cut.
In a statement from her campaign, Cooke noted that Van Orden has never done a town hall in his district, but has time to join Trump in Texas.
“Derrick Van Orden still hasn’t done a single town hall with his constituents in West Central Wisconsin. And lies from Dallas can’t change his record: Derrick Van Orden watched rural hospitals in his district close,” Cooke said. “Then, he voted to cut $7 billion from Wisconsin’s health care so that those funds could go to tax breaks for data centers instead. Congressman Van Orden can continue to defend the Big Ugly Bill all he wants. Folks here in West Central Wisconsin see their health care costs going up and their doctors leaving town.”
Republican members of Congress who are attending the convention had to pay $25,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee to access a hotel room in the committee room block and tickets to the welcome reception. Paying up to $100,000 earned members additional perks, including breakfast with House leaders. Vulnerable members did not have to pay the five-figure fee, Axios reported.
A spokesperson for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin criticized Van Orden for attending a “lavish” Texas event rather than focusing on solving the problems of his constituents.
“It should come as no surprise that D.C Derrick Van Orden decided to ditch his constituents to go bootlick an administration that is making life unbearably expensive for Wisconsinites,” the spokesperson, Haley King, said. “While Van Orden is out in another state trying to save his re-election campaign and promoting a delusional billionaire cosplaying as President, Wisconsin Democrats are meeting with voters and working to clean up the affordability crisis elected MAGA Republicans like Derrick Van Orden have created.”
A social media post from the Republican Party of Wisconsin showed that U.S. Reps. Bryan Steil and Glenn Grothman, and 7th Congressional District candidate Michael Alfonso, also traveled to Dallas for the convention. Only Van Orden, among Wisconsin Republicans, appeared on the program of speakers.
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