MADISON, Wis. — On Sep 17th, Representative Jodi Emerson, Assembly Candidate Alison Page and Eau Claire City Council Member Kate Felton held a press call highlighting Derrick Van Orden’s dangerous incompetence in Congress. This press conference comes as Derrick Van Orden returns to DC where Republicans are facing a looming September 30th deadline to fund the government and JD Vance skips out on the IVF Senate vote in Washington to campaign in Eau Claire for the extreme Trump-Vance Project 2025 agenda.

Speakers discussed Van Orden’s refusal to address the health care crisis in his district, to protect the reproductive freedoms of his constituents or fund the government, choosing instead to spread conspiracy theories and fuel right-wing extremism. 

Watch the press conference here, and see what speakers had to say, in part, below: 

Representative Jodi Emerson: “Instead of working to support the Chippewa Valley in Congress, Derrick Van Orden resorted to tired talking points—and didn’t actually take any action. I’ve seen him show up at a ribbon cutting, but that’s about where his work ends. This is not a group of people who know what it means to work across the aisle and discuss the best way to work together—this is a group who wants to spread lies and conspiracies, and prop up special interests at the expense of working families. They don’t care about doing what’s right for our state […] Derrick Van Orden, JD Vance, and the Legislative Republicans are all the same. They are devoted to a twisted idea of freedom that doesn’t include the will of the people—they refuse to accept free and fair elections when Wisconsinites have confidently cast their votes and they refuse to release funding for PFAS and the healthcare crisis in western Wisconsin to exert partisan power.”

Assembly Candidate Alison Page: “Frankly, Derrick Van Orden’s behavior has been embarrassing and he walks hand-in-hand with the House Republicans who have done nothing to actually address Wisconsinites’ biggest concerns. Our representatives should be working to solve the issues that matter most to us […] they should be working to restore our reproductive healthcare rights. In the legislature and in Congress, MAGA Republicans have ignored the needs of our families. When reproductive freedom was stripped away, they sat back and celebrated while the women of Wisconsin suffered. […] We should be making all healthcare […] more accessible, not less accessible. We should ensure that young women and families have access to the care and the support that they need to have children and raise them well.”

Eau Claire City Council Member Kate Felton: “Right-wing extremism in the House has made a mess of governing. Republicans can’t even get their own bills passed through their own majority. Their ideas are unpopular and ridiculous—they’re catering to the most extreme fringes of their own party and outright ignoring the needs of their own constituents. Take right here in Eau Claire. After the Chippewa Valley saw two hospitals shutter, Derrick Van Orden hasn’t lifted a finger to help. Tammy Baldwin introduced a bill that would require closing hospital systems to come up with a plan—and talk to the public—to ensure that communities impacted by closures can still access health care. And rather than support Tammy’s bill and support his own constituents, Derrick Van Orden is nowhere to be found.”