Wisconsin: who should earn your vote for Congress in 2026
Opinion · The paper’s scorecard
Wisconsin: every race for Congress on the 3 November 2026 ballot, and how the candidates measure up against our standards.
Sitting and former members are scored on the same key votes, read from the official House and Senate roll calls; each vote links to the record. Candidates who have never served in Congress have no votes to score, and outside the battlegrounds we have not researched them, so they are marked as not scored. Where only one candidate could be measured, the mark rates that record on its own; it is not a verdict on the opponent. How the marks work · All states
District 1 R+2
✓ Meets our standards: Bryan Steil
Mitchell Berman
Democrat
No congressional voting record; not scored
Meets our standards
Bryan Steil
Republican · incumbent
Scored on 27 key votes · total +4
- ✓Smaller government
- ~Small business over giants
- ✓Live and let live
- ✓Light touch on tech
- ✗Free speech
- ~No surveillance state
- ✗Home first, open trade
- ✓Checks on power
- ✓Right to bear arms
- ✓Hard on violent crime
With us (18)
District 2 D+21
No mark
Mark Pocan
Democrat · incumbent
Scored on 26 key votes · total +0
- ✗Smaller government
- ~Small business over giants
- ✓Live and let live
- ✗Light touch on tech
- ✓Free speech
- ✓No surveillance state
- ✓Home first, open trade
- ~Checks on power
- ✗Right to bear arms
- ✗Hard on violent crime
With us (13)
District 3 R+3
✓ Our pick: Derrick Van Orden
Rebecca Cooke
Democrat
No votes in Congress: scored on platform and record, promises at half weight · total -0.5
- ✗Smaller government
- ✓Small business over giants
- ?Live and let live
- ✗Light touch on tech
- ~Free speech
- ?No surveillance state
- ✓Home first, open trade
- ~Checks on power
- ✗Right to bear arms
- ?Hard on violent crime
With us (3)
- Campaign priorities page: "Enforce antitrust laws on larger corporate players who don't play by the same rules as main street and enjoy tax loopholes," and "Ensure tax incentives and subsidies are created for small to midsize farms, not just for bigger ag." Source
- At a June 2026 farm event she called for antitrust enforcement to break up large meat processors and a farm bill prioritising small and mid-sized farms. Source
- Criticised the Trump tariffs for raising costs on farm families: "people voted for Trump for this America First agenda and thought that he was going to put the interests of working farm families first, and it's been exactly the opposite." Source
Against us (4)
- Campaign priorities page calls for expanding Medicare to vision, dental and hearing, annually lowering the Medicare eligibility age, doubling Pell Grants, more federal housing block grants and a $15 federal minimum wage; it proposes no spending reductions. Source
- After Rep. Van Orden posted an undisclosed AI-generated video of a Cooke lookalike, she said she would back "stricter regulations on using AI-generated content in elections, such as the Protect Elections from Deceptive AI bill" and that Congress should "put guardrails on this technology." Source
- Giffords PAC endorsed Cooke (2024, renewed November 2025); its profile says 'she'll work to close the Charleston Loophole, enact red flag laws that allow law enforcement and families to disarm those who pose a risk to themselves or others, and expand background checks to all gun sales', and be 'a champion for strong safe storage requirements'. It also says she 'respects' Wisconsin's hunting tradition. Source
Our pick
Derrick Van Orden
Republican · incumbent
Scored on 21 key votes · total +4
- ✓Smaller government
- ✓Small business over giants
- ?Live and let live
- ✓Light touch on tech
- ✗Free speech
- ~No surveillance state
- ✗Home first, open trade
- ✓Checks on power
- ✓Right to bear arms
- ✓Hard on violent crime
With us (13)
Against us (8)
- Voted for the 2024 law forcing TikTok's sale or ban. Source
- Voted for the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which civil-liberties groups opposed as a limit on campus speech. Source
- Voted against the amendment requiring a warrant to search Americans' communications under FISA Section 702 (it failed 212-212). Source
District 4 D+26
No mark
Gwen Moore
Democrat · incumbent
Scored on 27 key votes · total +0
- ✗Smaller government
- ~Small business over giants
- ✓Live and let live
- ✗Light touch on tech
- ✓Free speech
- ✓No surveillance state
- ✓Home first, open trade
- ~Checks on power
- ✗Right to bear arms
- ✗Hard on violent crime
With us (13)
Tim Rogers
Republican
No congressional voting record; not scored
District 5 R+11
✓ Meets our standards: Scott Fitzgerald
Andrew Beck
Democrat
No congressional voting record; not scored
Meets our standards
Scott Fitzgerald
Republican · incumbent
Scored on 27 key votes · total +2
- ✓Smaller government
- ~Small business over giants
- ✗Live and let live
- ✓Light touch on tech
- ✗Free speech
- ✓No surveillance state
- ✗Home first, open trade
- ~Checks on power
- ✓Right to bear arms
- ✓Hard on violent crime
With us (17)
District 6 R+8
✓ Meets our standards: Glenn Grothman
Meets our standards
Glenn Grothman
Republican · incumbent
Scored on 26 key votes · total +2
- ✓Smaller government
- ~Small business over giants
- ✗Live and let live
- ✓Light touch on tech
- ✗Free speech
- ~No surveillance state
- ✗Home first, open trade
- ✓Checks on power
- ✓Right to bear arms
- ✓Hard on violent crime
With us (17)
Brad Smith
Democrat
No congressional voting record; not scored
District 7 R+11
No mark
Tom Tiffany (R): incumbent retiring to run for governor.
Michael Alfonso
Republican
No congressional voting record; not scored
Fred Clark
Democrat
No congressional voting record; not scored
District 8 R+8
Leans our way: Tony Wied
Rick Crosson
Democrat
No congressional voting record; not scored
Leans our way
Tony Wied
Republican · incumbent
Scored on 11 key votes · total +1
- ✓Smaller government
- ✓Small business over giants
- ?Live and let live
- ✓Light touch on tech
- ?Free speech
- ✗No surveillance state
- ✗Home first, open trade
- ✗Checks on power
- ?Right to bear arms
- ✓Hard on violent crime