Derrick Van Orden lays down a marker in western Wisconsin

EAU CLAIRE, Wisconsin — It takes a specific type of individual to run for a Home seat, lose, then strive once more the next election cycle. It additionally takes a specific type of individual to chortle off the press referring to you as a barrel-chested freedom-fighting frogman in your first run, then two years later calling you the plaid-clad inflation-fighting grandpa.

Congressman-elect and former Navy SEAL Derrick Van Orden (R) is that individual type of individual.

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“You already know what? It is a perform of age and maturity that I absolutely settle for it,” he stated. “I believe it is superior. I am smiling actually huge proper now.” Van Orden was considered one of a number of new Republican Home members who helped the GOP clinch the bulk final week, albeit by a a lot narrower margin than anybody imagined.

The retired Navy SEAL flipped a Home seat right here in rural Wisconsin that has been held by Democratic Rep. Ron Form for 13 phrases. Form determined final 12 months to not search reelection.

Van Orden, who attended the Jan. 6 rally however wrote in an essay that he left nearly instantly when he noticed the occasion “dissolving into one of the crucial tragic incidents within the historical past of our nation,” ran a tireless marketing campaign on the strengths he brings from his 20 years within the navy, by no means leaving one stone unturned on the path. He misplaced his final race in opposition to Form by 2 1/2 factors however received this time by 4.

“Some native political man stated of our race there is no such thing as a sugarcoating it: Republicans underperformed,” he stated in an interview. “Effectively, no Republican within the historical past of the third Congressional District bought greater than 51% of the vote, and we bought 52%. We carried out as our mannequin predicted. The parents within the third simply aren’t used to voting for a Republican but, and they are going to get used to it as a result of they are going to see that I’ll do precisely what I stated I’ll do. I am going to attain out to everyone that is there.”

This race was an exhausting dash throughout rolling farm fields and small cities throughout Wisconsin’s third Congressional District. It appeared there was hardly a farm, machine store, dairy, or small city that Van Orden didn’t go to.

Van Orden stated the one folks he’s accountable to are those in his district.

“I absolutely acknowledge that 48% of the district didn’t vote for me,” he stated. “In all of the interviews I have been doing, I am saying I am going to symbolize these 48% simply in addition to I do the 52% that did vote for me as a result of we’ve to get again to the place the place we’re representing our constituents, no matter whether or not or not they’re carrying an indication for you in a parade; they’re nonetheless Individuals, they’re nonetheless residents of the third Congressional District, and it is my obligation to symbolize them the most effective that I can. That straightforward.”

Born in abject poverty, Van Orden dropped out of highschool on the age of 16 and was with out goal till he joined the Navy on the age of 18. “I bought a GED within the service,” he stated. “I wound up serving for 26 years, over 21 of these as a Navy SEAL. I did eight deployments of six months or longer, together with 5 to fight. I bought my undergraduate diploma at 44, and I bought accepted to legislation faculty at 50. Sara Jane and I’ve been married for over 29 years, have 4 kids and eight grandchildren,” he says, encapsulating a lifetime of service in a couple of quick sentences.

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The third District is arguably one of the crucial lovely expanses in Wisconsin. It contains the Driftless or Coulee Area, and Van Orden likes to brag about it. “Think about essentially the most lovely place on the earth, after which multiply it occasions two. We’ve the most important contiguous part of the Mississippi River of any congressional district within the nation, which is the Driftless area, which was created when the glacier did not get that far down. There may be corn, beans, alfalfa, carrots, and potatoes are grown there in addition to cranberries. It is actually simply this infinite sequence of bucolic pastures of very hardworking, productive Individuals. It truly is. That appears like a joke that it is the most lovely place on the earth, however it’s. I do know that as a result of I’ve lived on 5 of the seven continents.”

Van Orden stated voters advised him their greatest issues going into Election Day had been the three Gs — “gasoline, groceries, and grandkids.”

“Folks can not afford the primary two, and they’re fearful in regards to the future for the third,” he stated. “In addition they stated they had been fearful about this open border that has led to the fentanyl scourge that is ruining America in addition to crime, which is rampant in every single place.”

He additionally pointed to oldsters’ deep issues about what their kids are being taught at school. “The general public training system in America is working away with issues that do not comport with what Individuals see as our regular values,” he stated. “When you’ve got the FBI investigating dad and mom which have gone to high school board conferences, and utilizing the identical code that they use for home terrorists to analyze them, that is an actual drawback.”

Van Orden stated the primary one who ought to have a say of their kid’s training is the guardian. He stated as soon as this new Congress is sworn in, voters must know that Republicans heard their issues and will give as a lot consideration to fixing these issues as they do to investigations into Hunter Biden’s laptop computer.

“We’ve to grasp and keep in mind that we’ve an enormous convention, and all of those committees have very particular functions; we are able to do all this stuff concurrently, and we are able to do many issues on the identical time,” he stated.

Van Orden stated he desires to be on the agriculture committee. “The final congressperson from the state of Wisconsin to sit down on the agriculture committee was 26 years in the past,” he stated. “That’s far too lengthy for a state that relies upon a lot on agriculture.”

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