National

Van Orden gets GOP endorsement for 3rd Dist. House race

Published

4 years ago

April 20, 2020

A retired Navy SEAL is the choice of Republican party regulars to run for Congress in the 3rd District.

Derrick Van Orden picked up 73 per cent of the votes at a party caucus this weekend, among Republican candidates who have announced plans to run against incumbent Democratic Congressman Ron Kind.

In January, Van Orden placed third in a La Crosse County caucus vote, behind John Garske and Jessi Ebben. The Republican nominee will be chosen in the August primary.

Van Orden’s campaign website says he decided to run after Kind voted for President Trump’s impeachment in December.

Several western Wisconsin Republicans have launched campaigns to challenge Kind this year.

Except for a couple of years where he ran unopposed, Kind has faced a different Republican challenger in every election since 1996.

The GOP primary will be held in August.

Brad Williams

A native of Prairie du Chien, Brad graduated from UW - La Crosse and has worked in radio news for more than 30 years, mostly in the La Crosse area. He regularly covers local courts and city and county government. Brad produces the features "Yesterday in La Crosse" and "What's Buried on Brad's Desk." He also writes the website "Triviazoids," which finds odd connections between events that happen on a certain date, and he writes and performs with the local comedy group Heart of La Crosse. Brad been featured on several national TV programs because of his memory skills.