Democrat backed by Blue Dogs and Bernie Sanders wins primary as parties prepare to battle for the House

Democrat Rebecca Cooke will face GOP Rep. Derrick Van Orden again in Wisconsin, NBC News projects, as both parties nominated candidates in battleground districts.

Tuesday’s primaries are setting the matchups in around a half-dozen competitive House races that will be key to the fight for the House majority in November, including in a hotly contested Democratic target in Wisconsin.

Rebecca Cooke won the Democratic primary in Wisconsin’s 3rd District, NBC News projects, and will take on two-term GOP Rep. Derrick Van Orden in the fall.

The race will be a rematch from 2024, when Cooke lost to Van Orden by about 3 percentage points even though Donald Trump carried the district by 7 points.

Cooke, a small-business owner, has touted her roots growing up on a dairy farm and tried to eschew political labels, boasting a range of supporters from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to moderate groups like New Dems and Blue Dogs to a progressive icon in Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

“I am a Blue Dog and a New Dem, but I’m also very progressive where it counts,” Cooke told NBC News last year. “I don’t like the labels and the boxes that kind of have been created, because immediately, you know, you’re written off and ‘othered’ in your party because you’re this or because you’re that. And really, I’m just — I’m running because I’m for western Wisconsin, period.”