Current U.S. representative for Wisconsin's 3rd Congressional District, in his second term. Campaign affiliation: Republican.
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Voter guide
Background, stated goals, record, and money
Background comes from official records, and from the campaign's own biography where the bullet says so; goals are summarized from the campaign's own platform and stay attributed; the record lines are official actions with the government source attached; money is shown as filed, with the filing window and the reconciliation in the note under the table, and is not evidence of why any position was taken.
Derrick Van Orden
Background
The sitting member for Wisconsin's third district, in his second term; Congress.gov records his service beginning with the 118th Congress in January 2023. Congress.gov
His campaign says he served 26 years in the Navy, 21 of them as a SEAL, and returned to Wisconsin to open a small business. Van Orden for Congress
He chairs the Economic Opportunity Subcommittee, receives his own health care through the VA, and says he is the first Wisconsin member in more than a decade to sit on the House Agriculture Committee. Van Orden for Congress
What they say they want to do
Safe drinking water, well-maintained roads and bridges, and reliable rural broadband for western Wisconsin. Van Orden for Congress
Protection for people with pre-existing conditions once the Affordable Care Act is repealed and replaced by a system he says would drive costs down through competition. Van Orden for Congress
Term limits on all legislators, so that election to Congress “remains an act of public service, not a way to enrich one's self”. Van Orden for Congress
Data centre development that needs local consent, spares productive farmland, protects ratepayers from new grid costs, and uses closed-loop or air-cooled systems rather than local water. Van Orden for Congress
Continued support for border enforcement and for legislation classifying fentanyl as a controlled substance. Van Orden for Congress
Introduced H.R. 985 to enlarge the Dairy Business Innovation Initiatives; it was referred to the Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry and went no further, as his earlier bill on the same subject had. Congress.gov, Congress.gov
His own VA Home Loan Program Reform Act, which he introduced alone and which passed both chambers by voice vote, became Public Law 119-31. U.S. Government Publishing Office, Congress.gov
The Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act became Public Law 119-69; he was an original cosponsor of the House companion, one of 118. Congress.gov, Congress.gov
Campaign money from other committees, by type
Transfers and contributions from joint fundraising committees 9 committees
Money from political committees in the 2025-26 cycle, through July 22, 2026 (FEC lines 11B, 11C and 12). The rows sum to 3,088,213.16 dollars. Donations from individuals, including through ActBlue or WinRed, are not counted here.
Words and record
Where statements meet the record
Each card is labeled narrowly, by rule, and states its own limit.
Derrick Van Orden
Protecting veterans from foreclosure
Matches stated record claim
What they say
His campaign says he has demanded accountability from the VA and fought to protect veterans from foreclosure through the VA Home Loan Program Reform Act.
“fought to protect veterans from foreclosure through the VA Home Loan Program Reform Act”
He introduced that Act as H.R. 1815 on March 3, 2025, as its only sponsor, with no cosponsors. The House passed it by voice vote on May 19 and the Senate by voice vote on July 15. It became Public Law 119-31 on July 30, 2025, and authorises the VA to pay a loan holder the amount needed to avoid foreclosure, and to establish a partial claim programme.
Limit: Both chambers passed the bill by voice vote, so no roll call records which members supported it. The law's effect on any individual foreclosure is not something this record can show — what it establishes is that the Act exists, that he alone introduced it, and that it was signed.
Derrick Van Orden
$350 million to move firefighting foam off PFAS
Matches stated record claim
What they say
His campaign says he has secured $350 million to transition firefighting foams away from PFAS to safer alternatives.
“secured $350 million to transition firefighting foams away from PFAS to safer alternatives”
The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 authorises “not more than $350,000,000 to carry out the PFAS replacement program”, which reimburses certificated airports for moving to approved fluorine-free firefighting foams at a 100 percent federal share. He voted Yea on House passage on July 20, 2023, which carried 351-69, and Yea on final passage on May 15, 2024, which carried 387-26. It became Public Law 118-63 the next day.
Limit: The figure is an authorisation ceiling — the most that may later be appropriated — rather than money appropriated. The programme is national and applies to airports holding a part 139 certificate, not specifically to Wisconsin. He was one of 387 members voting for it. The same $350,000,000 figure appears beside PFAS language in nine other public laws, all of them enacted before he took office on January 3, 2023, and none of those can be the one he means.
Derrick Van Orden
The Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act
Matches stated record claim
What they say
His campaign says he championed the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, which was signed into law by President Trump and ensures children have access to whole milk.
“championed the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act which was signed into law by President Trump”
He was an original cosponsor of the House bill, H.R. 649, on January 23, 2025, one of 118 cosponsors. That bill never left the Union Calendar. The measure that became law was the Senate companion, S. 222, which became Public Law 119-69 on January 14, 2026.
Limit: The Act was signed into law, and he put his name to the House version on the day it was introduced. But the bill he cosponsored is not the bill that passed, and he was one of 118 cosponsors of it. A first check of this claim found the Act's name in no public law and would have called it false; the Senate bill had been enacted and not yet indexed, which is why the enacted text rather than the bill index settles it.
Derrick Van Orden
Classifying fentanyl-related substances
Matches stated record claim
What they say
His campaign says bringing together law enforcement leaders across the district led to his support for legislation that classifies fentanyl as a controlled substance.
“his support for legislation that classifies fentanyl as a controlled substance”
He voted Yea on passage of S. 331, the HALT Fentanyl Act, on June 12, 2025, which carried 217-1. It became Public Law 119-26 on July 16, 2025. He had also voted Yea on the House companion, H.R. 27, on February 6, 2025, which carried 214-1 and went no further than the Senate.
Limit: The Act makes the Schedule I treatment of fentanyl-related substances permanent. Fentanyl itself was already a controlled substance before it, so the claim is loosely worded even though the vote behind it is real. He was one of 217 members voting for it, and as with the whole-milk Act the measure that became law was the Senate bill rather than the House companion he also voted for.
Derrick Van Orden
The Dairy Business Innovation Act
Record does not bear out the claim
What they say
His campaign lists, among major wins for Wisconsin farmers, passing the Dairy Business Innovation Act to support the development, production, marketing and distribution of Wisconsin dairy products.
“including passing the Dairy Business Innovation Act”
He sponsored a Dairy Business Innovation bill twice, H.R. 4894 in the 118th Congress and H.R. 985 in the 119th; each was referred to the Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry and went no further. Two of the three changes his bill would have made — raising the number of regional initiatives from three to four in both places the statute sets it — did pass the House, inside section 1015 of the 2026 farm bill, which he voted for on April 30, 2026. That bill has not become law. The third change, raising the authorisation from $20,000,000 to $36,000,000, is not in it. The initiative itself is section 12513 of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, four years before he took office.
Limit: The label rests on the words he used: the Act he names did not pass, and the vehicle that carries two thirds of it is not law either. But the distance between the claim and the record is narrower than a first pass found. This desk published this card citing only his two dead bills, which omitted that the operative text of one of them cleared the House inside the farm bill with his vote. Whether “passing the Dairy Business Innovation Act” is fairly called unsupported, given that, is a judgment the owner should make rather than this note.
Derrick Van Orden
Money for western Wisconsin drinking water
Matches stated record claim
What they say
His campaign says he has secured millions in funding to provide western Wisconsin with drinking water that is safe from contaminants.
“secured millions in funding to provide western Wisconsin with drinking water that is safe from contaminants”
The final FY2024 Interior funding tables list the City of Eau Claire Water Treatment Project at $2,000,000 and the Town of Campbell Water Utility Project at $2,000,000, each naming Van Orden in the House requester column, alongside a third Wisconsin drinking-water project at $800,000 requested by him. His congressional office had announced the first two as requests in November 2023.
Limit: The tables establish that the money was appropriated and that he was the member who requested it. They do not establish that the water is now free of contaminants: an appropriation is not a finished treatment plant, and no source here shows when either project was built or what it delivered. This desk first published this card with no verdict, saying the settling evidence was not published anywhere it could cite. That was wrong. Community project funding is listed in the joint explanatory statement rather than in the law, and the statute and the Congressional Record were searched while the explanatory statement was not.
The La Crosse County Clerk's official sample ballot for the November 3 election prints four candidates for this seat, plus an unnamed write-in line. Every candidate on this page is on that ballot, and nobody else is.
The two committees that file reports of receipts and disbursements lodge their pre-primary reports on the same day, covering July 1 to July 22, 2026. The other two printed candidates have registered principal campaign committees and have never filed such a report, in either cycle.
S. 222, the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2025, becomes Public Law 119-69. Van Orden was an original cosponsor of the House companion, H.R. 649, which never left the Union Calendar.
The VA Home Loan Program Reform Act, which Van Orden introduced alone on March 3, 2025 and which passed both chambers by voice vote, becomes Public Law 119-31. It authorises the VA to pay a loan holder what is needed to avoid foreclosure and establishes a partial claim programme.
The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 becomes Public Law 118-63, authorising not more than $350,000,000 for a programme that reimburses certificated airports for the transition to fluorine-free firefighting foams. Van Orden had voted for the bill at both House stages.
Congress.gov records Van Orden's first term beginning with the 118th Congress on January 3, 2023. The date settles one of his claims: the $350 million figure he cites for moving firefighting foams off PFAS appears in eleven public laws, and nine of them were enacted before this day.