Phillips ends presidential bid, endorses Biden
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota ended his long-shot 2024 Democratic presidential bid Wednesday after failing to win a primary contest against President Joe Biden.
Phillips told WCCO Radio in Minneapolis that he was endorsing Biden, saying “there is only one choice” in an expected fall match-up with Republican Donald Trump.
Phillips, 55, a multimillionaire who is among the richest members of Congress, built his White House bid around calls for a new generation of Democratic leadership while spending freely from his personal fortune. But the little-known congressman ultimately failed to resonate with the party’s voters.
Phillips was the only elected Democrat to challenge Biden for the presidency. Phillips’ failure to gain traction is further proof that Democratic voters are behind Biden, 81, even if many have misgivings about his age or his reelection prospects.
Biden’s reelection campaign largely ignored Phillips except to point out that the congressman voted with the administration nearly 100% of the time in Congress.
Phillips often argued that Biden was too old to serve a second term. But in a social media post Wednesday, Phillips noted that Biden had once visited his home while Biden was vice president and that his “decency and wisdom were rarities in politics then, and even more so today.”
Phillips said in the WCCO interview that while he thinks Biden “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.”