MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (CN) —Minnesota congressman Dean Phillips has suspended his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination and endorsed incumbent Joe Biden after winning no delegates in Super Tuesday’s 16 Democratic primaries.
Phillips, a three-term representative of Minnesota’s 3rd Congressional District in suburban Minneapolis, told local radio interviewer Chad Hartman that while he still had concerns about Biden’s age and capacity, “clearly and convincingly, Democratic primary voters have opined that I’m not that guy.”
In Minnesota’s own presidential primary on Tuesday Phillips, the heir to the Phillips Distilling fortune and former CEO of the gelato company Talenti, won just 7.8% of the vote.
In his exit interview, Phillips also nixed a rumored third-party run. While his candidacy leaned heavily on the idea that Americans wanted options beyond Biden and Donald Trump, and at one point he floated the idea of a “unity ticket” with Nikki Haley, he told Hartmann that “I don’t think a third-party ticket would be successful.”
Phillips, who won his seat in 2018 and flipped it for Democrats for the first time since 1960, launched his campaign in October 2023 in an effort to halt what he called a “coronation” of Biden as the Democratic candidate. His argument that the 81-year-old incumbent was too old to be an effective president failed to win the hearts of New Hampshire voters, who voted overwhelmingly for Biden in a write-in campaign necessitated by a broader fight over the state’s status as the first primary state.
New Hampshire nevertheless proved a high point for Phillips; in that state, he netted approximately 20% of the vote. Subsequent primaries and caucuses rarely saw him with more than 5% — Maine, Minnesota and Oklahoma were the sole exceptions — and at just under 19,000 votes, Phillips’ share of the vote in his home state was dwarfed by the 45,942 votes cast for “uncommitted” in the Democratic primary.
That total was driven by protest of the Biden administration’s ongoing support for Israel’s military actions in the Gaza strip. Minnesota’s 19% share of uncommitted votes is the largest of any state thus far, and netted the non-candidate 11 of the state’s Democratic delegates.
Shortly before polls closed in Minnesota on Tuesday, Phillips got snarky about his campaign on X, formerly Twitter, posting "Congratulations to Joe Biden, Uncommitted, Marianne Williamson, and Nikki Haley for demonstrating more appeal to Democratic Party loyalists than me.”
In his interview with Hartman, Phillips was slightly more conciliatory to his party. “It’s gonna be Donald Trump or Joe Biden,” he told the WCCO radio personality. “While indeed I think the president is at a stage in life where his capacities are diminished, he is still a man of competency and decency and integrity, and the alternative, Donald Trump, is a very dangerous, dangerous man.”
Phillips gave up his congressional seat when he announced his campaign, and a primary battle is now brewing in his home district between Democratic National Committee member Ron Harris and state Senator Kelly Morrison. The Republican field is wider, with former Hennepin County Commissioner and state legislator Tad Jude facing four opponents.
Other than dismissing a third-party run, Phillips hasn’t made any indication as to his next steps.
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