Democratic House hopeful leans into outsider image despite consulting and dark money ties

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In her own telling, Rebecca Cooke is running for Congress in Wisconsin as an outsider who doesn’t “come from a career background in politics.” In a recent campaign video, she emphasized how the public “doesn’t see a lot of people” like her in Washington, D.C., a city the Democrat warned is full of “career politicians and elitists who are out of touch.”

But Cooke, Federal Election Commission records show, has been paid tens of thousands of dollars directly and through an LLC over the last decade from Democratic campaigns for fundraising and political consulting services. And just recently, the House candidate was involved with a massive Washington-based dark money group masquerading as grassroots in the Badger State, according to Cooke’s candidate financial disclosures filed with the House.

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