Derrick Van Orden was among the thousands of people who went to Washington for the “Stop the Steal” rally headlined by then-President Donald Trump on Jan. 6, 2021. Afterward, Van Orden was photographed on or near the grounds of the U.S. Capitol, where rioters violently breached the building in one of American democracy’s darkest days.
Now Van Orden, a Donald Trump-endorsed retired Navy SEAL who says he took no part in the riot and did not set foot on the Capitol grounds, appears poised to win the U.S. House seat held since 1997 by retiring Democratic Rep. Ron Kind. Voters in the southwestern Wisconsin district say they are more concerned about daily economic issues than what happened on Jan. 6.
