SOUND THE ALARM: Van Orden Focuses on Offensive Tweets Instead of His Job
In case you missed it, the Milwaukee Courier recently documented Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District Rep. Derrick Van Orden’s deep history of islamophobic and racist tweets dating back to 2015 and including tweets as recent as last week.
Van Orden missed nearly half of his Agriculture Committee hearings, but has time to tweet over 100 times a week, frequently with deeply offensive and insulting language.
As Van Orden continues to fuel division and fails to show up for his constituents, EMILYs List-endorsed candidate Rebecca Cooke is traveling Wisconsin, talking to voters, and learning how she can help make their lives better and deliver real results.
Read an excerpt below, and the full Milwaukee Courier story here.
Van Orden’s social media history shows pattern of anti-Muslim, racist comments, Milwaukee Courier
By Drake Bentley, 06/30/26
Republican Wisconsin Congressman Derrick Van Orden has a history of Islamophobia and racism, including spreading baseless fears of American Muslims being terrorists and child rapists.
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In March, Van Orden found it “absolutely unacceptable” that nearly half of the doctors in a Texas hospital’s residency program were Pakistani.
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But Van Orden’s history of bigoted comments goes back a while.
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Bramouse Muhammad, the current Imam of the Sultan Muhammad Islamic Center and director of education at Clara Mohammed School in Milwaukee, said Van Orden’s rhetoric only adds to the growing culture of Islamophobia and antisemitism.
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“This fear-stoking rhetoric is not confined to the South and East. It has also made its way to the Midwest — specifically Wisconsin — through Representative Derrick Van Orden. As a U.S. House Representative for Wisconsin, he has followed the same tune as other politicians around the country. He would likely claim that his statements or agreements center on the conflict between Iran and the U.S., tensions around the Strait of Hormuz, or ‘radical’ Islam. But that isn’t accurate. He has been complicit in agreeing with slanderous statements — such as those made by Kevin Bass, who spread fallacious and incorrect claims about the Prophet Muhammad being divine and a child rapist; insensitive statements made by Vickie Paledine; and remarks by Matt Walsh asserting that the sexual torture and enslavement of children is part of Muslim culture.”
“Van Orden’s pattern of agreement with incorrect and inflammatory statements doesn’t end there. He has also agreed with claims about Democrats descending into ‘Islamo-leftism,’ cited Britain as the new ‘gateway country’ for Muslims, and even weighed in on the detainment of Selah Sarsour, supporting DHS’s claim that he was an alleged Islamic terrorist. As previously mentioned, this recurring rhetoric — voiced by many politicians, mostly Republicans — is strikingly consistent, and is almost always paired with insensitive, inflammatory language targeting Muslims, Islam, immigration policy, and the broader dehumanization of others.
“Based on these statements, attitudes, and patterns of agreement — none of which reflect respect for the millions of Muslim Americans who call this country home — we cannot, in good conscience, support Derrick Van Orden as a representative for the state of Wisconsin. A representative is entrusted to serve and uplift all of his constituents, not to lend credibility to rhetoric that demeans and endangers an entire faith community. Until he is willing to publicly reject this language and hold himself accountable for the company and statements he has aligned with, he does not deserve our support or our vote.”
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