phillips.house.gov
CV NEWS FEED // Rep. Dean Phillips, D-MN, ended his longshot primary challenge against President Joe Biden Wednesday and endorsed the president.
Phillips called Biden “OUR candidate,” a sharp contrast from a month and a half ago when he dubbed the unpopular president “unelectable” and called the Democratic Party “completely delusional” for coalescing behind the 81-year-old.
“In 2011, I hosted then VP Biden at my home,” Phillips wrote on X (formerly Twitter) Wednesday.
“Most notable was his empathy and kindness to my daughters and the catering staff, with whom he sat and had ice cream (surprise-surprise),” Phillips continued. “His decency and wisdom were rarities in politics then, and even more so today.”
The congressman went on:
I ran for Congress in 2018 to resist Donald Trump, I was trapped in the Capitol in 2021 because of Donald Trump, and I ran for President in 2024 to resist Donald Trump again – because Americans were demanding an alternative, and democracy demands options.
“But it is clear that alternative is not me,” Phillips emphasized. “And it is clear that Joe Biden is OUR candidate and OUR opportunity to demonstrate what type of country America is and intends to be.”
Patrick Webb of the independent news site Leading Report replied to the congressman with skepticism.
“Dean, I thought you claimed to be an outsider when you first began your candidacy. How are you an outsider, if you’ve been buddies with the Vice President for over a decade?” Webb wrote. “Not that you owe anyone your endorsement, but endorsing Biden seems quite odd.”
On the morning of the New Hampshire Primary in January, Phillips stated that he had a “conviction that Joe Biden is going to lose.”
“My only regret is that my party just doesn’t want to wake up from this delusion,” he said at the time. “Someone had to [challenge] Biden. I believe he’s unelectable. Polls are showing he’s unelectable. Now I think voters will show that he’s unelectable.”
Phillips exited the race for the Democratic nomination without winning a single delegate.
His best performance came in New Hampshire, where he won just under 20% of the vote. Biden, who won the primary with 63.9% of the vote, ran as a write-in candidate.
On Tuesday, Phillips only received just under eight percent of the vote in his home state of Minnesota – a part of which he represents in Congress.
By contrast, 18.9% of Minnesota Democratic Primary voters cast an “uncommitted” ballot – more than double the number of voters who backed Phillips in the contest.
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