Rebecca Cooke, a Wisconsin Democratic House candidate, called for defunding "brute police enforcement" and said the money should go to addressing "root causes" of crime.
Cooke, a local activist and former political fundraiser who is facing a competitive race against incumbent Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R., Wis.), also called for reallocating police funding toward Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder services and social workers.
Cooke made the comments during a Zoom call for Citizen Action Wisconsin in December 2023, according to video obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
"When it comes to policing, I'm a proponent of allocating greater funds to root causes of the issue, rather than brute police enforcing," said Cooke during the call.
Cooke’s comments, which echo rhetoric from the far-left "defund the police" movement, could complicate her efforts to position herself as a moderate in the race. In the past few weeks, Cooke has been running ads portraying herself as a middle-of-the-road candidate.
"It seems like everyone in Washington is either too far left or too far right. I’m Rebecca Cooke and like most folks in Wisconsin, I’m somewhere in the middle," said Cooke in one ad last month.
The National Republican Congressional Committee slammed Cooke’s stance on police funding as "extremism."
"Rebecca Cooke has spent her career working to elect far left Democrats like Mandela Barnes, and her policy stances prove it," said NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella. "Wisconsinites have rejected Defund the Police extremism once before, and they’ll do it again this November when they reject Defund the Police radical Rebecca Cooke."
In a Vernon County Democrats campaign event last March, Cooke called for reallocating police enforcement funding toward social workers and mental health services for cops.
"In terms of making things more equitable for folks in marginalized groups, how can you reimagine policing?" one attendee asked Cooke.
Cooke responded that it was a "great question" and "something that was brought up a lot last cycle, too."
"I think having a lot more resources put towards having officers and social workers that will come to help deescalate situations, versus using force first, that's something that I'm a proponent of," she said.
Cooke said she also wanted to change "how we allocate funding within police departments, including, you know, PTSD support for police officers."
The Wisconsin congressional race is one of the most competitive in the country as the GOP fights to hold onto its narrow control of the U.S. House of Representatives. Recent polls show Cooke within striking distance of the Republican incumbent, Van Orden, a former Navy SEAL and retired actor.
When asked about her past statements, Cooke told the Free Beacon that she believes "we need to fully fund our police departments to keep our communities safe."
"We also need to ensure that we are making investments in social and mental health services to allow police officers to focus on their job," said Cooke. "The reality is that Derrick Van Orden isn’t delivering for our communities, which is why I am proud to have earned the support of first responders from across the Third District."