EXETER, N.H. (CN) — Dean Phillips, the Minnesota Democratic congressman who began his longshot campaign for the White House six weeks ago by saying that Joe Biden was a “terrific president” who was just too old, has morphed into a sharp-elbowed challenger claiming that Biden is attacking democracy — directly undermining Biden’s chief argument against Donald Trump.
The Democratic party establishment is “reprehensible” and guilty of “hypocritical, inexcusable and dangerous corruption,” Phillips charged while campaigning in New Hampshire.
Phillips is furious that Florida Democrats canceled their primary and simply declared Biden the winner, while North Carolina and Tennessee announced that only Biden would appear on the ballot, creating an election with a pre-determined victor.
In New Hampshire, where Phillips is doing relatively well, the national party announced that any delegates he wins won’t be allowed to vote at the convention.
“This is Democrats suppressing Democrats,” Phillips complained in an interview with Courthouse News. “It’s an affront to the principles of democracy.”
The Democratic party has joined the Republican party in being “part of the destruction of this country,” Phillips told residents of the New Hampshire Veterans Home in Tilton on Friday.
The charge is significant because Biden and his party are building their 2024 campaign on the claim that Republicans represent a threat to democracy — a claim that is somewhat less tenable when a member of the Democratic congressional leadership is traveling the country making specific claims that Biden himself is a threat to democracy.
The Democratic National Committee announced a year ago that South Carolina would get the first primary, snubbing New Hampshire, which has gone first for more than a century. The move was seen as an effort to reward South Carolina for supporting Biden in 2020 and punish New Hampshire, where he finished fifth.
Because New Hampshire law requires that the state go first, it ignored the DNC’s wishes, and the DNC responded by invalidating the votes of any New Hampshire delegates. Biden sided with the DNC and refused to register for the state’s ballot, although the party is encouraging voters to write in his name anyway, which could be seen as hypocritical.
Phillips is campaigning hard in New Hampshire in an attempt to embarrass Biden in the Jan. 23, 2024, voting and catapult himself to national prominence.
Although Phillips says he decided to run in early October and spent two weeks cobbling together a campaign before announcing on Oct. 27, an Emerson College poll in New Hampshire in mid-November showed that 15% of the state’s Democrats planned to vote for him, while 27% planned to write in Biden’s name.
Phillips is the adoptive grandson of the columnist known as Dear Abby and was raised by the family that owned the Belvedere vodka distilling business. He went on to the run that business, as well as owning the Talenti gelato company and a coffee shop chain.
“I understand what Americans want,” he told residents of a senior-living community in Exeter on Friday. “Vodka, gelato and coffee.”
Phillips decided to run for Congress after Trump won the presidency in 2016 and his daughter, a lesbian, was reduced to tears. He won in a suburban Minneapolis area, the 3rd Congressional District, that hadn’t elected a Democrat since the 1950s. When he arrived in the House of Representatives, he was the fifth-wealthiest member, with a net worth estimated at over $120 million, according to Open Secrets.
Phillips claims to be the only congressman who refuses to take donations from PACs, lobbyists and other members.
His biggest advantage is that he comes across on the stump as sharp, articulate and genuinely interested in reaching across the aisle to find consensus. Although he has voted with Biden 100% of the time, he is now putting distance between himself and the president on health care, education and marijuana legalization.
In Exeter, he blamed Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on the weak response of President Obama and Biden to Russia’s earlier invasion of Crimea. On the economy, he said that “people are really angry and tired of this administration saying everything is great.”
“I’m taking on my own party,” he added, claiming that Democrats in Washington support Biden in public but routinely pan him behind his back. “The two parties are working against democracy,” he said. “We’re in real deep trouble due to both parties.”
Biden’s age remains Phillips’ signature issue. Biden would lose to Trump because “most Americans have come to the conclusion that he’s too old,” Phillips said in the Courthouse News interview.
The campaign’s shoestring nature was occasionally apparent in New Hampshire. In Exeter, three campaign workers — political science majors at Union College who were getting course credit for volunteering — showed up at town hall to set up for a rally, only to find that the building was locked and the event was taking place at the senior-living community several miles away.
The senior-living talk attracted some four dozen residents, even though the community billed it merely as a “campaign forum.” Resident Bev Tappan said, “I think they would have gotten a better turnout if they had told us who was speaking.”
Phillips urged the residents to talk up his campaign on Facebook. He then asked, “How many of you have a Facebook account?” and only one person raised a hand.
But if the campaign events sometimes lacked high-powered organization, they also revealed a remarkable lack of enthusiasm for Biden, even among committed Democrats.
Hammering Biden on the age issue would have been awkward at the senior-living community, and Phillips avoided it, but many residents said it weighed on their mind. “It’s a shame he ran again,” said Herb Kingsbury. “He’s too old — and I’m older than he is.”
“Biden’s done a good job, but he’s too old,” said Rick Barker. “And his vice president isn’t in a position to take over.”
“He’s not up to it,” said Tappan, who voted for Biden in 2020.
Some residents said they would reluctantly vote for Biden if the alternative were Trump. “Hell,” said Tappan, “I even held my nose and voted for Hillary.”
But others weren’t so sure.
Dennis Wagner, who voted for Biden last time, said he’s afraid of Trump, but didn't know about voting for Biden again. “He’s not supporting the military, he’s fiscally irresponsible and he’s bad on the border,” Wagner said.
At the veterans’ home, Reggie Watson, a longtime Democrat, answered “maybe” about voting for Biden. “I don’t like him. He doesn’t do the job,” he explained. He prefers bestselling spiritual author Marianne Williamson.
Charlie Tanguay, a 97-year-old World War II vet, said he was a lifelong Democrat who voted for Biden last time but was having serious doubts about voting for him again.
“It’s a touch-and-go proposition,” he said.
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