First elected in 2018, Phillips defeated six-term Republican incumbent Erik Paulsen.[7] By flipping the previously Republican district, he became the first Democrat to win the seat since 1958, and has since been reelected twice by comfortable margins. In November 2023, Phillips announced that he would not run for reelection.[8] Despite consistently voting in support of President Joe Biden's policy positions, he challenged him for the Democratic Party nomination in the 2024 presidential election.[9][10] Phillips received the second-highest number of delegates of any candidate in the primaries (four), but was unsuccessful.[11][12]
Early life, education, and career
Phillips was born to DeeDee (Cohen) and Artie Pfefer in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1969.[13] His biological father was killed in the Vietnam War six months after Phillips was born. His mother married Eddie Phillips, heir to the Phillips Distilling Company and the son of advice columnist Pauline Phillips (popularly known as Dear Abby),[14] in 1972. Eddie adopted Dean, who took the last name Phillips.[15] He was raised Jewish.[16]
Phillips served as the company's president and CEO from 2000 to 2012. He then stepped aside to run one of his other corporate investments, Talenti gelato, until it was sold for an undisclosed amount to Unilever in 2014.[18] In 2016 he founded Penny's Coffee, a coffeeshop chain he still owns, which has two locations in the Twin Cities metropolitan area as of 2022.[18]
Phillips addressing the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party State Central Committee in 2017Dean Phillips for Congress campaign booth at the Minnesota State Fair
In the general election, Phillips defeated incumbent Republican Erik Paulsen with 55.6% of the vote.[21] When he took office in 2019, he became the first Democrat to hold this seat since 1961.[citation needed]
Phillips ran for reelection in 2020. He defeated Cole Young in the Democratic primary with 90.7% of the vote[22] and faced off against the Republican nominee, businessman Kendall Qualls.[23] Phillips defeated Qualls with 55.6% of the vote.[24]
Phillips was unopposed in the Democratic primary. In the general election, he defeated the Republican nominee, retired U.S. Navy submarine officer Tom Weiler, with 60% of the vote.[25]
Phillips authored five provisions in the H.R.1 legislation that passed the House in March 2021. H.R.1 was an enormous anti-corruption and voting rights reform bill known as the For the People Act. It also included a major overhaul of campaign finance and redistricting laws. Phillips's provisions for the package included the Voter NOTICE Act, which sought to fight disinformation, and the FIREWALL Act, which sought to strengthen safeguards of online advertising.[32]
Phillips co-sponsored the Liberian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act, giving Liberians a pathway to citizenship, which President Trump signed into law.[33][34]
Phillips co-sponsored H.R. 2307, the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, which would put a price on carbon and return the proceeds to taxpayers,[35] and H.R. 8395, the EPA Regulatory Authority Act of 2022, which would restore the EPA's ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.[36]
On March 5, 2022, Phillips was among the lawmakers who met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about providing additional help to Ukraine in fending off Russia's invasion.[37][38]
Phillips was among the U.S. delegation that attended the 2022 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.[39]
After Roe v. Wade was overturned, Phillips co-sponsored bills to protect women's reproductive rights that aimed to ensure access to abortion and reproductive health care across states, including H.R. 8297: Ensuring Access to Abortion Act of 2022[40] and HR 8111: My Body, My Data Act of 2022.[41]
Phillips sponsored the Pathways to Policing Act to provide $50 million to the Department of Justice and local communities in funding to enhance officer recruitment efforts.[42][43][44] Another $50 million would go to the Department of Justice to create Minnesota-style Pathways to Policing programs in states across the nation.[45]
On July 10, 2023, Phillips co-led the bicameral IDEA Full Funding Act in the House of Representatives. This legislation aimed to finally ensure Congress fulfills its commitment to fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).[46][47]
One of Phillips's points of pride during his tenure in Congress is his claim that he is the only member of Congress to refuse all money from lobbyists, special interest groups, and Political Action Committees, and his decision to not have his own leadership Political Action Committee.[48]
On December 20, 2023, Phillips signed on as a co-sponsor of the Medicare for All Act.[49] This marked a departure from his earlier position on healthcare; he said that he had previously been "convinced through propaganda that [single-payer healthcare] was a nonsensical leftist notion".[50] He cited a confluence of factors that shifted his view in favor of Medicare for All, including his experience caring for his daughter who had been diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, the financial strain of providing health insurance to his employees as a business owner, and the dynamics of representing a congressional district that includes the headquarters of UnitedHealth Group as well as many people who struggle to access healthcare.[51]
On May 17, 2024, Phillips reintroduced the Voter Choice Act in the 118th Congress, which provides $40 million in federal matching grants, covering up to 50% of the cost for local and state governments that choose to adopt ranked-choice voting.[52][53]
On September 27, 2024, Phillips introduced the American Dream Accounts Act of 2024, which would establish in the Social Security Administration a $5,000 account for every American child to be invested in an index fund and vest upon graduation from high school, GED, or waiver for disability.[54][55]
On December 16, 2024, Phillips delivered his farewell address on the House floor.[56] In it, he criticized America's two major political parties for "legalized corruption" that prioritizes their own "self-protection over principles"[57] and urged his colleagues to find commonsense solutions and focus on ideas over ideology in solving problems.[58]
In July 2023, Phillips said he was considering challenging President Joe Biden in the 2024 Democratic presidential primaries.[63] Before launching his campaign, Phillips reportedly reached out to other elected Democratic officials, such as Governors Gretchen Whitmer and JB Pritzker, to urge them to enter the presidential primary, but they declined to speak with him directly.[64][65] In October 2023, he announced that he would step down as co-chair of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee because his views on the 2024 presidential race were incongruent with the majority of his caucus.[66] On October 27, in Concord, New Hampshire, he announced a run for the presidency[67] after he officially filed the paperwork with the Federal Election Commission the previous day.[68] Phillips argued during his campaign that Biden would be a weak general election candidate due to his age and low approval ratings.[69] Phillips said he would challenge to gain access to the primary ballots of several states where the Democratic Party had excluded him.[70][71] The Democratic Party of Wisconsin left Phillips off the ballot; he appealed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court on January 26, 2024.[72] The court unanimously ruled on February 2 that Phillips should be included on the ballot.[73] He accused representatives of the Biden campaign of pressuring liberal media outlets not to platform him.[74][75] Phillips also accused the Democratic National Committee of actively obstructing Democrats and Independents from ballot access—"bleeding campaigns dry" by suing non-incumbent candidates and imposing "absurd signature requirements".[76]
Andrew Yang consistently expressed support for Phillips's campaign since soon after its launch, and co-hosted campaign events in Manchester and Hanover, New Hampshire, with him on January 18.[79][80]
In January 2024, billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman said he supported Phillips's campaign, donating $1 million to his We Deserve Better campaign PAC.[81]
On January 12, NewsNation hosted a forum featuring Phillips and other Democratic presidential candidates. Biden was invited but did not attend. Dan Abrams moderated the discussion.[83]
Phillips has the second-most awarded delegates in the 2024 Democratic Party presidential primaries, with four.[93] In the Ohio Democratic presidential primary, he received three delegates to the Democratic National Convention,[11] meeting the 15% threshold of votes needed to receive a delegate in a congressional district in the state's 2nd, 6th, and 14th districts.[94] In the Nebraska primary, Phillips earned one delegate by receiving the most votes of any candidate in Logan County, with 55.6% of the vote.[95] Based on the Nebraska primary results, one Phillips delegate represented Madison County at the Nebraska Democratic State Convention.[96] In the Oklahoma primary, he received a plurality in Cimarron County.[97][98][99] In the Missouri primary, he tied with Biden in Clark County.[100][101]
Biden withdrew from the presidential election on July 21, 2024.[102] The same day, shortly before Biden ended his campaign, Phillips urged Democrats to hold an "immediate" vote of confidence on Biden in a Wall Street Journal column and Face the Nation interview amid growing concerns about his reelection chances.[103][104][105] Despite claiming that he still endorsed Biden, Phillips also said on Face the Nation that "it is time [for Biden] to step aside and turn this over to a new generation".[104]
After Biden withdrew, Phillips said numerous Democrats reached out to him and expressed regret at not taking his concerns more seriously. He expressed disappointment that Biden had not dropped out far earlier and said, "vindication has never felt so unfulfilling." The New York Times dubbed him the "modern Cassandra of American politics" because his warnings about Biden's fitness and age proved prescient despite being ignored.[106]
Phillips proposed a straw poll of delegates ahead of the Democratic National Convention to determine the party's top four presidential contenders, who would then take part in four town halls outlining their platforms.[107] After the town halls, the delegates would vote to choose the nominee.[108][109]
U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett, the first sitting Democrat in Congress to openly call for President Joe Biden to withdraw from the 2024 United States presidential election after the first presidential debate, said after Trump won, "I only regret I didn't do it earlier ... I believe that the only person in our caucus who doesn't share some responsibility for the outcome is Dean Phillips, who came out early."[110]
Phillips is married and has two daughters from a previous marriage. He is Jewish[114] and was acknowledged by the Minnesota publication The American Jewish World for serving on the board of Temple Israel in Minneapolis.[115]
^"MN Election Results". Electionresults.sos.state.mn.us. Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State. Archived from the original on November 7, 2018. Retrieved November 7, 2018.
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