The Wisconsin congressional candidate’s financial disclosure revealed fellowships with Third Way and the Pipeline Fund

By Elaine Mallon Fox News

Published August 29, 2026 2:42pm EDT

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A waitress running for Congress in Wisconsin’s third district was on the payroll of two left-leaning organizations with ties to billionaire investor George Soros’ Open Society Foundation.

Rebecca Cooke has portrayed herself as a working-class outsider, touting her experience as a waitress, small-business owner and nonprofit leader raised on a dairy farm. But a personal financial disclosure released two days after Wisconsin’s Aug. 13 primary shows she received more than $5,000 apiece for work with Third Way and the Pipeline Fund, two left-leaning organizations with financial ties to George Soros’ Open Society network.

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.

Through the Open Society Foundation, which serves as the umbrella organization for Soros’ philanthropy network, Soros has distributed tens of millions of dollars to nonprofits and groups championing left-leaning causes like policing reform, LGBTQ rights and drug decriminalization.

Soros has donated more than $32 billion of his personal fortune to the Open Society’s Foundation, which has been overseen by his son Alex Soros since 2022.

Rebecca Cooke, candidate for Congress in Wisconsin’s Third Congressional District, speaks during a town hall hosted by Pete Buttigieg at the La Crosse Center on January 16, 2026 in La Crosse, Wisconsin.(Kayla Wolf/Getty Images)

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The financial disclosure forms only report that the amount of money Cooke received from each organization was above $5,000, but they do not specify the exact amount. The personal financial disclosure form covered Jan. 1, 2025, through July 14, 2026.

A spokesperson for Third Way confirmed with Fox News Digital reporting by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Cooke received $30,000 in payment “for a project focused on elevating the voices and concerns of working-class Americans that have too often been missing from the rooms where decisions are made.”

The Foundation to Promote Open Society, a grant making arm of George Soros’ Open Society Foundations network, donated a $500,000 grant to the Third Way Institute in 2023 and another one in 2024, according to IRS-derived grant records.

Third Way Institute serves as the 501(c) research arm of the Third Way. In 2024, Third Way Institute transferred $21.9 million to Third Way, accounting for roughly 98% of the institute’s total spending that year. The institute said the money was used to support charitable and educational work on economic, national security, energy and social policy issues.

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George Soros, Founder and Chairman of the Open Society Foundations arrives for a meeting in Brussels, Belgium, on April 27, 2017.(Olivier Hoslet/AFP via Getty Images)

Fox News Digital reached out to Third Way for comment.

Pipeline Fund is a organization that works to train, recruit and support progressive candidates running in state and local election races. It began operating independently in 2024 after spinning off from the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a liberal nonprofit network that has received tens of millions of dollars from the Soros-founded Open Society network.

Tax records also show that the Pipeline Fund received $1.4 million directly from the Open Society Action Fund and approximately $2.26 million from the Sixteen Thirty Fund in 2024.

Scattered across the country, Pipeline Fund has a network of campaign consulting groups, including one in Wisconsin known as Wisconsin Progress.

“We can confirm Rebecca Cooke worked as a contractor for The Pipeline Fund in 2025 to help advance our mission of building a reflective democracy where working-class people, women, people of color, and other underrepresented communities are fully supported to run for office and advance the needs of their communities,” Pipeline Fund said in an emailed statement to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) arrives at the U.S. Capitol on September 25, 2024 in Washington, DC(Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

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Prior to making a bid for Congress herself, Cooke opened up her own Democratic campaign consulting firm in 2015, in which she worked with eight state and federal campaigns from 2015 to 2021.

“Radical Rebecca Cooke is a paid political operative for far-left liberals and wants to push their socialist agenda. Commie Cooke may fit in at [a] Soros-funded consulting firm, but she is far too extreme to represent western Wisconsin,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Zach Bannon said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

Cooke’s personal financial disclosure was not released until two days after the Aug. 13 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 of Representatives race must submit a personal financial disclosure form 30 days before the election.

Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., blasted Cooke’s delay in releasing her financial records, saying it tells voters all they need to know about her.

“For months, Democrats and Republicans across the Third District called on Cooke to release her financial disclosures. She had every opportunity to be transparent with voters. Instead, she chose to keep them hidden until after the primary,” Van Orden said in a news release.

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“That tells Wisconsin voters everything they need to know about Rebecca Cooke’s character. She was willing to deceive her own party to protect the political persona she built and gain political power,” Van Orden said.

But Cooke said her financial forms reveal that she truly is a working-class American.

“I’ve always worn multiple hats to make ends meet and in addition to waitressing I worked on two projects related to getting more working class people to run for office and conducted research for an organization about how to better connect with working class voters,” Cooke said in an email to the Sentinel.

“There are unique challenges to running for office as a working class person with an hourly wage job and a full-time campaign schedule. For example, I’m one of the thousands of people in this district who can’t afford health insurance. I’ve been proud to help make it easier for the next generation of working class leaders to step up and take our fight to Washington D.C.”

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Fox News Digital reached to Open Society Foundation, Cooke’s campaign and Pipeline Fund for comment.

Elaine Mallon is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business covering national politics.