Van Orden declines to answer questions about Jan. 6 in Lake Hallie visit
Oct. 14—LAKE HALLIE — At the same time the January 6th Committee was holding a hearing in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Third Congressional District candidate Derrick Van Orden declined to answer any questions about what he did in Washington, D.C., that day.
Van Orden, who is running for the open seat as a Republican, stopped at the Lake Hallie Golf Course to receive the endorsement of the Tavern League of Wisconsin.
When area media pressed Van Orden with multiple questions about his role in the attack on the U.S. Capitol, he switched topics and declined to answer their original question. Van Orden said he has put more than 160,000 miles on his vehicle as he has crisscrossed the district and listened to the concerns of residents in western Wisconsin.
"This doesn't come up," Van Orden said of the January 6 hearings. "What comes up is the highest inflation in years. What I hear from people is they are worried about making rent and paying their propane bills. That's what people care about."
Van Orden, a retired military SEAL, is running against State Sen. Brad Pfaff, D-Onalaska, for the vacant seat. Incumbent Ron Kind, D-La Crosse, is retiring. Nationally, the Republican Party considers this a seat they can pick up in their goal of retaking control of the House of Representatives.
In recent weeks, Pfaff has stepped up his criticism of Van Orden for attending the Jan. 6, 2021, rally in Washington, D.C., and he has questioned if Van Orden crossed police lines that day. Pfaff also stopped in Eau Claire on Thursday. In a press release from Pfaff's office, Town of Bangor Supervisor and U.S. Army veteran Sam Arentz challenged Van Orden to join him in watching the Jan. 6 hearing.
"As a fellow veteran, I'm calling on Derrick Van Orden to put his patriotism to the test and join me in watching the Jan. 6 Committee hearing on the very same insurrection that he took part in two years ago," Arentz said in the press release. "Derrick has been happy to hide from media inquiries, from sharing a debate stage with Brad Pfaff, and from the voters of this district. He has no right to hide from a brother-in-arms, and if he's as true of a patriot as he claims, he'll join me at the Bangor Laborers' Local 140 at (noon Thursday.) Anything short of that tells me everything I need to know about this so-called 'patriot.'"
With fewer than four weeks until election day, it is becoming increasingly unlikely that the two candidates will debate. Van Orden said he wanted a town hall-style debate. Pfaff responded by offering three town hall debates, but with a moderator. When asked Thursday about if a debate will occur, Van Orden said that Pfaff "isn't going to negotiate in good faith," so Van Orden will instead focus on small roundtable discussions with voters.
Van Orden sat down with several members of the Tavern League of Wisconsin, where they told him about the problems with rising food costs, heating and utility bills, and the struggle to hire and retain staff.
"One thing we really like about him is he's really willing to listen," said Dino Amundson, co-owner of Lake Hallie Golf and president of the Tavern League of Wisconsin.
Along with the Tavern League endorsement, Van Orden also announced an endorsement from the Wisconsin Dairy Alliance.
"The dairy industry is part of the culture of Wisconsin," he said. "The dairy farmers are the root, the culture, of our state."
The Third Congressional District is considered by major poll-tracking websites as the only congressional seat in Wisconsin that is a toss-up. Van Orden has led in every poll at the nationally-renowned politics website fivethirtyeight.com, and the site's computer model now shows Van Orden has a 78% chance of winning. The computer model projects Thursday that Van Orden will beat Pfaff 52.5% to 47.5%, and that lead has expanded in the past week.
When asked about the polls, Van Orden credited his steady lead to meeting with voters.
"I'm deeply connected to what they care about," he said.
