New Hampshire event. With his campaign bus as backdrop, Minnesotan Dean Phillips lays out why he’s rung for president. After signing candidacy documents at the state Capitol,] to be on New hampshire’s March primary ballot, Phillips was quickly on the campaign trail.
Why a Democrat opposing Biden? ”I’m younger”
CONCORD, N.H. – Minnesota Democrat Dean Philips, now in his fourth term in Congress, finally entered the 2024 presidential race in an event outside New Hampshire’s state Capitol. It was on the final day to qualify for the state’s March primary election. Drawing a line from one his heroes, John Kennedy, Phillips said: “It is time for the torch to be passed to a new generation of American leaders.” Phillip is 54 and has positioned himself as a more viable 2024 Democratic candidate than Joe Biden, who is 80. Biden, if re-elected, would be president until he’s 86. John Kennedy, at 43, was the youngest U.S. president in history at the time he was elected – although Theodore Roosevelt was 42 when he ascended from vice president after President William McKinley was assassinated.
No dichotomy on principles
In Congress Phillips has voted consistently for Biden policies. So why run? In a pre-recorded interview that aired on the CBS morning syelevision how, Phillips said: “I didn’t set out to enter this race. But it looks like on our current course, the Democrats will lose and Trump will be our President again. President Biden is a good man and someone I tremendously respect. I understand why other Democrats don’t want to run against him, and why we are here. This is a last-minute campaign, but desperate times call for desperate measures, and courage is an important value to me.” In Concord, addressing reporters outside his campaign bus, Phillips reiterated his choice to run is fueled by the goal of keeping former President Donald Trump out of the White House: “The man is a disaster for our country. He was four years ago. He will be again. That’s why I’m doing this.”
Biden vulnerabilities
Phillips said he would fix the economy and warned about high prices. He called the situation at the Southern Border “chaos.” Most political analysts see the economy and border as vulnerable issues for Biden.
Phillips. Heir to a family distillery fortune. Elected from MN-6, which comprises mostly upscale suburbs west of Minneapolis. First to Congress in 2018.
Button season ahead. A woman pinned a Phillips button on her shoulder to shake hands. He has plenty.
New Hampshire primary
The only other Democrat on the New Hampshire primary ballot is self-help author Marianne Williamson. Although Biden won’t be on the ballot, a write-in campaign, is possible. New Hampshire Democrats are angry at Biden for diluting their state’s influence on the national 2024 Democratic primary calendar by shuffling the sequence pf approved primaries. Biden was complicit in the change. The state, Phillips noted, had historically been “first to vet presidential candidates like me.” Meanwhile. Biden is traveling next week to Minnesota, Phillips’ home state, for an event and a fund-raiser.