‘I did what you’re not supposed to’: Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips on ‘principled’ run vs. Biden

(NEXSTAR) – Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips is now seeing the rainbow after walking through the rain, as his father would say, months after he failed to win a primary contest against President Joe Biden, jeopardizing relationships within his own party in the process.

The 55-year-old multimillionaire House member from Minnesota was the lone Democrat to challenge Biden for the presidency, a campaign that was fiercely criticized by colleagues. Speaking with Nexstar at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago Tuesday, Phillips had no regrets about his “principled mission.”

Over a year before major figures in the Democratic party would call for Biden, 81, to step down following a disastrous debate against former President Trump, Phillips was trying to convince his own party and the public that Biden was too old to serve another term.

Phillips remembered a July 2022 radio interview during which he said publicly that it was time for Biden, who has called a man of “competency and decency and integrity,” to “pass the torch.”

When nothing happened that year, Phillips said in 2023 he started calling some governors directly and “issued a call to action amongst anybody prepared, ready to go,” but again felt ignored.

“By October of last year, recognizing nobody would do it and the numbers were getting worse and worse, I knew this was going to have to be a conversation we had when, not if, and I decided, ‘If no one else will, I’ll do it myself,'” Phillips told Nexstar. “And that’s when the mission started, and my colleagues were awfully surprised and aghast, some publicly, some more privately [and] some, some very encouraging. But I did what you’re not supposed to do, which is to take on an incumbent.”

Phillips’ campaign ultimately failed to gain traction, even in Minnesota, where he finished third in the March 2024 Super Tuesday primary, garnering 8% of the vote behind Biden’s 71% and 19% for “uncommitted,” the Associated Press reported.

Biden has since ceded his role as the incumbent candidate, making way for Vice President Kamala Harris to head the Democratic ticket, but Phillips says he isn’t interested in victory laps.

“‘I told you so’ has never served me well, and I think we can all relate to that in our personal and professional relationships,” Phillips said. “I came here out of joy, and to feel what has changed.”

The Minnesota congressman has enjoyed some vindication however, telling Nexstar that colleagues in Washington have told him they now understand why he felt the need to run.

“Just on a very personal, human level, it feels good, kind of like being back at the popular table in the cafeteria,” Phillips joked.

Phillips, who says he won’t run for reelection when his term ends in 2025, says he is a “proud Democrat” but hopes ranked choice voting will give future independent candidates a better chance at winning.

“We have two private corporations that only answer to their officers who are appointees of their parties, not answering to the general public, and we have to at least shine light on the truth,” Phillips said. “I want to play a role in at least trying to increase the feeling that many of us are feeling right now, which is anything’s possible if you’re willing to say the quiet part out loud and endure a little bit of pain.”