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Dem House hopeful’s delayed disclosure reveals mystery payments from Soros-linked groups
ReDem House hopeful’s delayed disclosure reveals mystery payments from Soros-linked groups
Rebecca Cooke, a Democratic congressional candidate in Wisconsin, failed to disclose payments from two left-leaning organizations with ties to George Soros until after the primary election.
Rebecca Cooke, a Democratic candidate running for Congress in Wisconsin’s third district, received payments from two left-leaning organizations with financial ties to billionaire investor George Soros’ Open Society network, according to a personal financial disclosure released two days after the state’s Aug. 13 primary.
Cooke, who has campaigned as a working-class outsider with experience as a waitress, small-business owner, and nonprofit leader raised on a dairy farm, reported receiving more than $5,000 each from Third Way and the Pipeline Fund. The disclosure forms do not specify the exact amounts, but a spokesperson for Third Way confirmed to Fox News Digital that Cooke received $30,000 for work on a project focused on elevating the voices of working-class Americans. The Pipeline Fund, which trains and supports progressive candidates in state and local races, confirmed Cooke worked as a contractor in 2025 to advance its mission of helping underrepresented communities run for office.
The Open Society network awarded $1 million to Third Way’s nonprofit research arm between 2023 and 2024, while the Pipeline Fund received $1.4 million directly from the Open Society Action Fund in 2024. The Foundation to Promote Open Society, a grant-making arm of Soros’ network, donated $500,000 to the Third Way Institute in both 2023 and 2024, according to IRS-derived grant records. The Third Way Institute transferred $21.9 million to Third Way in 2024, accounting for roughly 98% of the institute’s total spending that year. The Pipeline Fund also received approximately $2.26 million from the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a liberal nonprofit network that has received tens of millions of dollars from the Soros-founded Open Society network.
Soros has donated more than $32 billion of his personal fortune to the Open Society Foundation, which has been overseen by his son Alex Soros since 2022. Through the foundation, Soros has distributed tens of millions of dollars to nonprofits championing left-leaning causes such as policing reform, LGBTQ rights, and drug decriminalization.
Cooke’s financial disclosure was not released until two days after the primary, following an extension she requested from the clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives in April. All candidates who spend or raise more than $5,000 for a House race must submit a personal financial disclosure form 30 days before the election. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., criticized Cooke’s delay, saying she had every opportunity to be transparent with voters but chose to keep the records hidden until after the primary. “That tells Wisconsin voters everything they need to know about Rebecca Cooke’s character,” Van Orden said in a news release. “She was willing to deceive her own party to protect the political persona she built and gain political power.”
National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Zach Bannon called Cooke a “paid political operative for far-left liberals” and said she is “far too extreme to represent western Wisconsin.” Cooke, however, defended the payments, saying her financial forms reveal she is a working-class American. She noted that in addition to waitressing, she worked on two projects related to getting more working-class people to run for office and conducted research for an organization about working-class concerns.
Prior to her congressional bid, Cooke opened her own Democratic campaign consulting firm in 2015, working with eight state and federal campaigns from 2015 to 2021. The disclosure form covered Jan. 1, 2025, through July 14, 2026.
