Phillips ends his challenge to Biden

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips, the Minnesota Democrat who jumped into the presidential race arguing that an aging President Joe Biden could not beat Donald Trump, dropped out of the race after faring poorly in the Super Tuesday primaries.

“I am going to suspend my campaign and I will be, right now, endorsing President Biden,” Phillips said on WCCO radio.

He said he hoped his campaign would have been more successful but conceded that after Super Tuesday’s dismal results, “the people have opined.”

Phillips trailed Biden, author Marianne Williamson and/or “uncommitted” in every state he was on the ballot. 

Phillips had signaled last month that his campaign was in trouble, announcing he had laid off a large portion of his staff right before Michigan’s Democratic presidential primary, which will be held on Tuesday.

The announcement could also mark the end of his political career since he is not running for reelection in his House district.

In a long posting on X, Phillips said he would work for Biden’s reelection, although he feared Trump would win in November. 

“In light of the stark reality we face, I ask you join me in mobilizing, energizing, and doing everything you can to help keep a man of decency and integrity in the White House. That’s Joe Biden,” Phillips said.

In 2011, I hosted then VP Biden at my home. Most notable was his empathy and kindness to my daughters and the catering staff, with whom he sat and had ice cream (surprise-surprise). His decency and wisdom were rarities in politics then, and even more so today.

Over a decade… pic.twitter.com/e3mGNU7u2C

— Dean Phillips (@deanbphillips) March 6, 2024

Phillips began his political career as a hero to his party, flipping a suburban Twin Cities Third Congressional District from years of GOP control to the Democrats by defeating Republican Rep. Erik Paulson. Since then, he has made what was once a swing district solidly Democratic. But he has earned the enmity of many of his colleagues for his challenge to Biden.

Phillips, 55, came to Congress eager to effect change and continue his campaign to “repair” the American political system.

“As I begin my service in a government in need of serious repair, I am inspired by the spirit of collaboration and respect I’ve seen in so many of my new colleagues,” he said in a statement when he was sworn into Congress on Jan. 3, 2019.

But over the next few years, partisanship divisions and inter-party squabbles would increase, and that spirit of collaboration evaporate.

Nevertheless, Phillips joined the centrist “Problem Solvers Caucus,” a group of Republicans and Democrats, at a time when moderates of both parties were becoming more endangered because of redistricting and the increasing polarization of American politics.

Before he hit the presidential campaign trail, Phillips was often seen walking his little dog, Henry, down the halls of Congress. He was considered an affable lawmaker imbued with a rare sense of optimism on Capitol Hill. He was considered a shoo-in for reelection to the U.S. House before he declared his candidacy for president and announced he would not run for another congressional term.

As a successful businessman and the heir to the Phillips Distillery fortune, Phillips is also one the richest members of the U.S. House.

Yet, as a very junior member of the House when it was under Democratic control, Phillips lacked the clout to move legislation forward. He was frustrated when a police reform bill failed to include his proposal to establish a new recruitment program to address shortages of law enforcement personnel and by the increasing inability of Congress to get things done.

Democrats in 2022 lost the U.S. House and Phillips had even less ability to make his mark, although he pressed for centrist solutions to a debt limit impasse and even volunteered — under certain conditions — to round up Democratic votes to save former Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy from a revolt in his own party.

Phillips’ ideas were noted, but not acted upon. What won him the most attention was that in July of 2022, he was the first Democrat to publicly say Biden was too old to serve another term in the White House.

Phillips said he tried to persuade other Democrats – including California Gov. Gavin Newson and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Witmer — to challenge Biden. But he said many of those he tried to recruit would not even take his calls.

So, at the end of October, he decided to run himself — even though he had missed several state filing deadlines and had to kick off his insurgent campaign with $4 million out of his own pocket.

“There was a good reason to have a better candidate than Biden,” said Tim Lindberg, a political science professor at the University of Minnesota-Morris. “But when nobody stepped up, it didn’t make sense for him to step forward. Phillips should have stepped back like all the other Democrats who were critical of Biden.”

Phillips hastily put together a campaign team and concentrated his efforts in New Hampshire, a state that had refused to abide by the Democratic National Committee’s new primary calendar, which put South Carolina as the first Democratic primary state. Because of New Hampshire’s insistence that it continue to be the first-in-the-nation primary, Biden declined to place his name on the state’s primary ballot, but trounced Phillips anyway through a write-in campaign.

An even worse defeat followed in South Carolina, where Phillips attracted only about 2,200 votes and came in third behind Biden and author Marianne Williamson. He also barely registered in Michigan’s Democratic presidential primary. 

Kenneth Mayer, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, called Phillips’ presidential bid “purely a vanity effort, motivated by who knows what.”

Lindberg said Phillips’ campaign had lots of problems, including how it was run and how the candidate came across to voters. The core reason Phillips ran — because he believed Biden was too feeble to defeat former President Trump — was another problem, Lindberg said.

“Other than being younger, he wasn’t better than Biden,” Lindberg said. “And he wasn’t any different from Biden on the issues.”

Phillips did try to run to the left of Biden, who is also considered a moderate, on some issues. He promoted a “Medicare for All” plan that would expand affordability and access to health care and a universal income pilot project that would guarantee residents a basic income in 20 cities and regions around the country.

But Phillips, who prides himself on his messaging skills, failed to gain traction.

Editor’s Note: Ana Radelat wrote this story. She is MinnPost’s Washington, D.C., correspondent. 

This article first appeared on MinnPost and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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