Derrick Van Orden brought Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan to Eau Claire on Friday, using a stop at the Menards Distribution Center to sell a tax message aimed squarely at workers in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District. The visit put the Republican lawmaker’s pitch for no tax on overtime and tips in front of an audience he says the policy was built for.
The tax cuts were signed into law as part of the working families tax cut and jobs act, also known as Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, and Van Orden framed the law as relief for people who work with their hands and help drive the district’s economy. Jordan’s appearance made the event more than a routine campaign stop. It tied a national Republican figure to a seat that is very much in play, with Van Orden’s district up for grabs in November.
That made Eau Claire a useful stage. Van Orden described Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District as a cross-section of rural America, and said it is a place where products are made and shipped by workers who depend on wages that can rise with overtime and tips. The message was simple: let those earnings stay in workers’ pockets instead of sending them to Washington.
But the savings question remains harder to sell. Emily Berge said she had traveled across the 19 counties of the 3rd and spoken with thousands of folks who, in her view, have been harmed by the One Big Billionaire Bill that Van Orden and Jordan voted for. She said every person she heard from had seen health care costs rise significantly more than the no tax on overtime or tips has saved them, a direct challenge to the idea that the tax break is already putting meaningful money back into family budgets.
Berge also turned the visit into an attack on both men, calling Jordan a pedophile protector and saying he has taken voters to mat his entire career. She said she would deliver real economic relief, fight for Medicare for All and put people over party bosses and the ultra-wealthy. The clash leaves the November race where it started: with Van Orden and his allies arguing that tax relief is the story, and Democrats saying rising health care costs are the part of daily life that still matters most.
