As the potential of another Trump-Biden November matchup creeps closer, one Democratic congressman is challenging Joe Biden in the Democratic primary: Representative Dean Phillips of Minnesota.
“As someone who believes deeply that we are a nation predicated on competition, not coronation, I felt compelled in the absence of any better known candidates entering the stage to compete for the Democratic nomination against Joe Biden,” the 55-year-old told The Post.
Phillips spoke to The Post from the campaign trail in New Hampshire, ahead of Tuesday’s Democratic primary election.
According to American Research Group polling, he has managed to garner 32% of likely Democratic voters’ support in New Hampshire during 10 ten-week campaign.
But Phillips says the DNC has been working to obstruct the vote by changing the Democratic primary schedule and preventing the engagement of delegates from New Hampshire.
When asked if what the DNC is doing is antidemocratic, Phillips said, “Yes, by definition.”
In fact, New Hampshire’s Attorney General even sent a cease-and-desist letter to the DNC, accusing them of unlawful voter suppression.
Meanwhile, the DNC is also preventing ballot printing in Florida and North Carolina and declaring there will be no debates.
“I don’t know how to better articulate these efforts than, yes, a threat to democracy by undermining it and suppressing it,” Phillips told The Post.
He said he doesn’t know whether Biden is behind the DNC’s recent moves: “I do think that President Biden has a responsibility to at least be asked the question about these things. I’ve not seen any evidence that he has been asked.”
Nonetheless, he believes it’s President Biden’s responsibility to do something about it.
“In the absence of any response, I have to hold him accountable because he is the president of the United States and the leader of the Democratic Party,” he said. “I believe democracy dies in the absence of competition, and right now I’m afraid we have two political parties that are actively working against the very foundations of the democracy.”
Phillips, an entrepreneur and co-owner of Talenti Gelato, has represented Minnesota’s 3rd congressional district since 2019, when he unseated a four-term incumbent Republican.
But he says he found a “dysfunctional, poorly-led, and unmitigated mess” on Capitol Hill.
“With the two parties moving further and further to corners, it does create an opening for people of pragmatism and common sense to invite that exhausted majority to the table,” he said.
Phillips served as the vice chair of the Problem Solver’s Caucus and was ranked the second most bipartisan member of Congress.
He said he intends to continue that track record in the White House by engaging advisors on both sides while promoting affordable housing, Medicare For All and a child tax credit.
Despite championing progressive causes and cross-partisan cooperation, Phillips says challenging Biden has made him an enemy of the mainstream media.
He says his campaign has depended on alternative media platforms to get his message across after being stonewalled by MSNBC and CNN, who haven’t afforded him an interview after providing a town hall for every Republican primary challenger to Trump.
Instead, he’s been doing the podcast circuit, most recently speaking to Bari Weiss, Megyn Kelly and Scott Galloway. And he has been gaining steam on X, with public expressions of support from Jordan Peterson and a live conversation with Elon Musk and Bill Ackman earlier this month.
Phillips was criticized for replacing a reference to “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” with “Equity & Restorative Justice” after Ackman, a vocal critic of DEI, pledged to donate $1 million to the political PAC supporting his campaign.
The Phillips campaign subsequently defended the move, saying “DEI now means such divergent things to different people that it is no longer descriptive.
And, according to Phillips, that stonewalling extends to the Democratic Party itself.
“Those who endeavor to have the audacity to practice democracy as I have are excommunicated,” he told The Post. “There lies the biggest risk to democracy: When people with different perspectives… go against their party, we now live in an era where that not only is not welcomed but it results in banishment.”
Despite the DNC’s efforts, New Hampshire is going forth with their primary as planned, where Phillips hopes to make a splash and prove that incumbency doesn’t guarantee victory.
“I think people are starting to recognize that we right now have two men who for different reasons are not acceptable candidates for president of the United States,” the Minnesota Representative said. “I would like to see us turn the page from both Trump and Biden into the next generation.”