Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips Launches Challenge To Joe Biden For Democratic Nomination

Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN), who represents a suburban Minneapolis congressional district, launched a challenge to President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination.

His announcement has been expected for weeks, as Phillips, 54, warns that Biden’s age and low approval mean that he very likely may lose to Donald Trump next year. Trump has a wide lead against the GOP field.

In an interview with CBS News’ Robert Costa on CBS Mornings, Phillips said that he thinks Biden has “done a spectacular job for our country, but it is not about the past. This is an election about the future.”

“I will not sit still, I will not be quiet in the face of numbers that are so clearly saying that we going to be facing an emergency next November,” he said.

In the interview and in his campaign video, Phillips said that now was the time to “pass the torch” to a new generation.

“I think the time is now, because I think four years from now, it may be too late,” he said.

Phillips is the heir to the Phillips liquor fortune who has launched his own gelato and coffee businesses.

Marianne Williamson also is challenging Biden for the nomination. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also was in the Democratic primary, but recently announced he would run as an independent.

Phillips plans to enter the New Hampshire primary today and launch a bus tour. Biden’s campaign said this week that he will not file to be on the ballot, as the state’s Democrats have been in a standoff with the Democratic National Committee over what will be the first-in-the-nation primary. New Hampshire is trying to maintain its influential position in the nominating contest, but the DNC has selected South Carolina to be the first in 2024, scheduled for Feb. 3. A write-in campaign for Biden is possible.

Although Phillips acknowledges that his race is a longshot, intra-party challenges to incumbent presidents have in the past exposed party divisions. In 1992, Pat Buchanan challenged President George H.W. Bush, with Bush winning New Hampshire but Buchanan garnering a better-than-expected 37.5% of the vote. In 1980, Senator Ted Kennedy challenged President Jimmy Carter, drawing 37.3% to Carter’s 47%.