(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) A Democrat candidate in Wisconsin was caught jaywalking into oncoming traffic Friday in an apparent attempt to evade questions about her endorsement of New York City’s communist mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani.
In the video, Rebecca Cooke turns her back on a man-on-the-street interviewer who asks her if she plans to invite Mamdani—a radical Islamist and Uganda native with limited leadership or job experience—to campaign with her.
Cooke then enters into a crosswalk with a red “no crossing” sign as a vehicle races by and car horns are audible in the background. It is unclear from the video whether they are honking at her.
She also refuses to respond to a follow up question on whether she endorsed the leadership of Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., the top Democrat in the U.S. House.
Cooke, a perennial also-ran candidate whose family owns an Eau Claire dairy farm, is expected once again to vie for the House seat of incumbent Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wisc., in the highly competitive battleground district.
Despite efforts to position herself as a centrist, she previously has been linked to a George Soros-funded progressive dark-money group, Opportunity Wisconsin, the Free Beacon reported.
She also admitted after Mamdani secured the Democrat nomination for mayor that she would support him over more moderate—but still left-wing—alternatives like former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams.
“We are fighting fascism,” she said at the La Crosse County Democrats’s monthly meeting in September to justify her endorsement of Mamdani.
“Um, I’m being myself,” Cooke continued. “I haven’t gone a different way on policies to try to earn or, you know … somebody’s support. I’ve just been being myself.”
Despite her candor, however, not everyone was ready to embrace Cooke’s decision to reveal her authentic self by following lockstep with her party in its great leap leftward.
The National Republican Congressional Committee said it applauded her, on one hand, for speaking her truth, even though it may be political poison to voters.
But it slammed Cooke for her more recent efforts to evade further questioning about the endorsement.
“Rebecca Cooke can’t run away from her endorsement of Socialist Zohran Mamdani and their radical agenda that defunds the police, abolishes private property, and raises taxes on hardworking families,” NRCC spokesman Zach Bannon said in a statement. “Communist Cooke doesn’t represent Wisconsin values, and voters will once again reject her extremism at the ballot.”
Cooke’s sympathies for hardline Islamic radicalism don’t end with her support for Mamdani.
She also has called on the U.S. to end its financial support of Israel while refusing to credit President Donald Trump for his efforts to broker peace in its war against Hamas.
Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.
