It’s a constant source of frustration for the Minnesota congressman challenging President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination. Party leaders and pundits have decided the nomination is a done deal for the incumbent president. Florida and North Carolina Democrats won’t even give him a shot by putting him on the ballot.
Sure, Phillips is on the ballot in New Hampshire, which holds its primary Tuesday. But what good is that, when the Democratic National Committee isn’t officially sanctioning the contest in the Granite State, which is breaking party rules by holding its primary first?
Ceding the nomination to Biden – who Phillips insists cannot beat former President Donald Trump – is “the very coronation that the founders of this country were so intent to prevent,” the 54-year-old three-term House member says from the campaign trail in New Hampshire.
“Competition is what this country is all about – not coronation. We demand debate and democracy. It is one of the legs of the democratic stool.”
For Phillips, the steep uphill challenge isn’t so much about policy differences with Biden. Phillips has voted with Biden 100% of the time, and many items in the former businessman’s platform are ideas Biden has proposed or failed to get through the Congress where Phillips now serves.
It’s Biden himself – someone Phillips calls a “good man” but also a weak leader whose unpopularity even in his own party makes him an existential threat to democracy because of his vulnerability to Trump.
Phillips has blamed the Biden campaign and national Democrats for muzzling him, even accusing unnamed Biden campaign operatives of pressuring networks not to give him TV time (which the Biden campaign has dismissed as absurd), let alone the hour-long town halls that have been awarded, he notes, to GOP contenders far behind Trump.
And the lack of full ballot access means that no amount of campaigning on his part will translate into delegates at the convention.
“Other than the violence, what is the difference between an effort to stop the counting of ballots versus an effort to stop the ballots from even being printed or voted on?” Phillips says, comparing the relative threats to democracy presented by Trump and Biden, respectively.
Of course, more attention is a mixed blessing. When Phillips did land an interview with CNN on Wednesday, he was quickly confronted with reports that he altered his campaign website’s diversity, equity and inclusion platform to accommodate a donor. He strenuously denied the charge, but the narrative took hold and generated perhaps his biggest headlines to date.
Biden won’t debate Phillips, which is standard behavior for incumbent presidents with primary opponents. And the Biden campaign declined to weigh in on Phillips’ candidacy – also standard for incumbents not facing serious threats from challenges within their own parties.
But it irks Phillips to no end. People should be able to hear out both contenders and make their own decision, he says.
Democrats resist talking about the Phillips candidacy, not wanting to add any oxygen to a primary challenge they see as doing the party no good. Many are encouraged Biden will dominate as a write-in – even though no delegates will be awarded there.
“I believe the reason the write-in Biden campaign in New Hampshire is doing as well as it is, is because most Democrats recognize that we need to be united in our effort to stop Donald Trump from winning back the presidency,” says Jim Demers, a veteran New Hampshire Democratic operative and former state legislator who supports the write-in effort.
Phillips is full of ideas, though many of them have been offered before by Biden
himself or other Democrats. Considered a centrist (and one of the most bipartisan people in politics, Phillips notes, citing a ranking by the Common Ground Alliance), Phillips calls himself a “proud progressive” and supports “Medicare for All.”
Under that program, people of all ages could choose to join Medicare voluntarily, putting pressure on private insurance plans to eliminate or reduce co-pays and other costs – an issue Phillips has seen up close and personal. His daughter had Hodgkin lymphoma, and as a business owner (he is the former co-owner of the gelato company Talenti), Phillips says he understands the financial strain of providing health insurance to workers. (He has been accused by Republicans of not providing health care to employees, but a PolitiFact investigation found that claim to be untrue and that Phillips provided health care to full-time employees.
Phillips wants to expand the child tax credit (something Biden did that was rolled back by congressional Republicans and which he is trying to get reinstated). When it comes to securing the border – a task he says Biden has failed at miserably – Phillips wants a “buffer zone” on each side of the southern border and wants to have immigrant hopefuls apply for asylum in their home countries and have their cases adjudicated there.
The Biden administration has tried a similar program to have asylum-seekers apply for status from Mexico, but it has not worked out well, since people had trouble accessing an app created to process their requests and had to wait long periods for someone to hear their cases.
Under Phillips’ proposal, approved asylum-seekers would be brought to the United States, easing the crush and humanitarian crisis at the border.
“It’s not that easy to accomplish,” Phillips acknowledges. But “the solution to me is very clear.”
On the situation in Israel – one that has divided the Democratic Party as much as the nation as a whole – Phillips says it’s all about hearing out the different sides and bringing the country together.
“It’s not rocket science. It starts with listening,” Phillips says. “I do believe that is why Joe Biden is losing and seeing eroding support around the country. It’s that lack of leadership. It starts with the party.” Biden – who spent 36 years in the Senate – doesn’t make the effort to reach out to members of Congress, Phillips contend
“Leadership requires the investment in human relationships,” Phillips says. “The president, I believe, is a good man, but he has not formed relationships with members of Congress. People in Congress are ambitious and have big egos, and they want to be part of the solution,” Phillips adds.
Phillips’ future role in the solution is less certain. He’s polled as high as 28% in an American Research Group survey in New Hampshire – still 30 percentage points behind Biden, whose name is not on the ballot there because the president (who advocated for South Carolina to be the site of the first primary for Democrats) is honoring the DNC rules. A January poll by the University of New Hampshire, the leading polling operation in the Granite State, was more discouraging for Phillips, finding he had 7% support among Democrats – just a percentage point ahead of self-help guru Marianne Williamson and far behind Biden, who got 69% support.
Democratic activists are mounting a write-in campaign for Biden. A strong showing for the president could give him a boost as he struggles with abysmally low approval ratings.
Phillips, meanwhile, is not giving up – or giving in. He’s trying to reach voters through alternative platforms, such as the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter. On Monday afternoon, Phillips participated in a live X event with site owner Elon Musk and hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman, suggesting that one or both might end up in a Phillips Cabinet the candidate says will be “bipartisan.”
“This is not a fly-by-night yahoo,” Phillips says of himself. “This is a serious candidate for president, and that’s the story I’m trying to at least tell – to the people who are willing to listen.”
In a race heavily dominated by the Biden campaign and Democratic officials, getting people to listen is more than half the battle for Phillips.
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