Biden will face a primary bid from Rep. Dean Phillips, who says Democrats need to focus on future

Politics

While Phillips is highly unlikely to beat Biden, a run would offer a symbolic challenge to national Democrats trying to project the idea that there is no reason to doubt the president’s electability.

Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., speaks with reporters after a Democratic caucus meeting on Capitol Hill, Friday, Oct. 1, 2021, in Washington. AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File

By WILL WEISSERT and HOLLY RAMER, Associated Press

October 27, 2023 | 8:28 AM

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — For months, Dean Phillips has been calling for a Democratic primary challenge to President Joe Biden. He’s drawn no public interest from governors, lawmakers, and other would-be alternatives.

On Friday, the Minnesota congressman will finally enter the race himself.

The 54-year-old Phillips has scheduled a campaign announcement Friday morning at the New Hampshire statehouse in Concord. Asked by CBS News in an interview posted late Thursday if he was running for president, Phillips responded: “I am. I have to.”

“I think President Biden has done a spectacular job for our country,” he said. “But it’s not about the past. This is an election about the future.”

While Phillips is highly unlikely to beat Biden, a run would offer a symbolic challenge to national Democrats trying to project the idea that there is no reason to doubt the president’s electability — even as many Americans question whether the 80-year-old Biden should serve another term. Phillips may also benefit from New Hampshire Democrats angry at Biden for diluting their state’s influence on the 2024 Democratic primary calendar, a change that state party chairman Ray Buckley has warned could create a “potential embarrassment” by “an insurgent candidate, serious or not.”

Biden’s reelection campaign and the Democratic National Committee have declined to address Phillips’ possible run. But White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre noted Phillips’ voting record and said, “We appreciate the congressman’s almost 100% support of this president.”

Buckley was far more upbeat about Biden this week, saying the president would easily clinch his state’s primary even though he won’t officially run in it, requiring a write-in campaign.

And as speculation picked up this week about the New Hampshire event, Biden planned to head next week to Phillips’ home state for an official event and fundraiser.

Biden has long cast himself as uniquely qualified to beat Donald Trump again after his 2020 win, and top Democrats have lined up behind him while also positioning themselves for a future primary run.

Phillips has already missed the deadline to enter Nevada’s primary and is little known nationally. But he argues Biden may not be able to beat Trump again, telling CBS News that polling suggests “we’re going to be facing an emergency next November.”

New Hampshire primary challenges have a history of wounding incumbent presidents.

In 1968, another Minnesotan, Democratic Sen. Eugene McCarthy, built his campaign around opposing the Vietnam War and finished second in New Hampshire’s primary, helping push President Lyndon Johnson into forgoing a second term. Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy’s challenge of President Jimmy Carter and Pat Buchanan’s run against President George H.W. Bush both failed, but Carter and Bush ultimately lost their reelection bids.

The state’s influence on Democrats was curtailed this year by changes engineered by the DNC at Biden’s behest.

A new Democratic calendar has South Carolina leading off presidential primary voting on Feb. 3 and Nevada going three days later. New Hampshire has refused to comply, citing state laws saying its primary must go first, and plans a primary before South Carolina’s. The DNC could, in turn, strip the state of its nominating delegates.

Steve Shurtleff, a former speaker of the New Hampshire House who has distanced himself from Biden, said he has spoken twice with Phillips and believed the congressman might appeal to some Democrats and independents who can choose to vote in the primary.

“I like Biden and have a lot of respect for him. But I’m disappointed that he and the DNC have tried to take away our primary,” Shurtleff said. “It’s not that I want to see Joe lose. It’s that I want to see our primary win.”

But Terry Shumaker, a former DNC member from New Hampshire and longtime Biden supporter, said he expects the president to easily clinch the state as a write-in option. Shumaker recalled going door to door for Eugene McCarthy in 1968, but doesn’t see Phillips gaining similar traction.

“I’m not aware of what his message is,” he said. “To do well in the New Hampshire primary, you have to have a message.”

There are no primary debates scheduled, according to the DNC. The only other Democrat running in the 2024 primary is self-help author Marianne Williamson. Anti-vaccine activist Robert Kennedy Jr. announced this month that he’s running as an independent.

Phillips is one of the wealthiest members of Congress and heir to his stepfather’s Phillips Distilling Company empire, which holds major vodka and schnapps brands. He once served as that company’s president but also ran the gelato maker Talenti. His grandmother was the late Pauline Phillips, better known as the advice columnist “Dear Abby.”

Driving a gelato truck was a centerpiece of his first House campaign in 2018, when Phillips unseated five-term Republican Erik Paulsen. While his district in mostly affluent greater Minneapolis has become more Democratic-leaning, Phillips has stressed that he is a moderate focused on his suburban constituents. He is a member of the centrist Problem Solvers Caucus in Congress.

“Democrats are telling me that they want not a coronation, but they want a competition,” Phillips said in an interview with CBS in August. He added then that “Democrats under 30 want alternatives” and “if we don’t heed that call, shame on us. And the consequences, I believe, are going to be disastrous.”

It’s not a new line of argument for him. When he first got to Congress, Phillips spoke of the need for a “new generation” of Democrats to replace then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and was frustrated when no one emerged. He later praised Pelosi as “one of the most successful speakers of all time.”

Still, he’s not the only one voicing concerns now. An AP-NORC poll released in August found that the top words associated with Biden were “old” and “confused.” Nearly 70% of Democrats and 77% of U.S. adults said they thought Biden was too old to be effective for four more years. The same poll found that respondents most frequently described Trump as “corrupt” and “dishonest.”

Leslie Blanding, a retired teacher and Democrat from Bow, New Hampshire, said she did not know Phillips but was “thoroughly conflicted” over whether Biden should face a primary challenger.

“I think Biden is too old. I think from the outset, he should’ve been looking to groom someone to succeed him, and he didn’t do that,” said Blanding, 75. “But I think he seems to be the only one positioned to have a strong chance of defeating Trump or whomever.”

Weissert reported from Washington. AP National Political Writer Steve Peoples in New York and Associated Press writer Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis contributed to this report.