A descendant of Russian immigrants decided to challenge Joe Biden in the election
On the eve of the US presidential elections in 2024, the current leader of the country, Joe Biden, has a competitor. His fellow party member Dean Phillips decided to challenge the current head of the White House. Who is he — the heir to the alcohol business and the grandson of a famous American columnist from a family of Russian Jewish immigrants?
Until recently, CNN notes, Dean Phillips was known as a mild-mannered moderate, one of dozens who helped Democrats take control of the House of Representatives in 2018. A member of the lower house of Congress from Minnesota served as president and CEO of his family's spirits business, Phillips Distilling Company. He is also the former co-owner of the American ice cream brand Talenti gelato and co-owner of Penny's Coffee.
Dean Phillips is the grandson of Pauline Esther Phillips (known as Abigail Van Burren), the famous author of the once popular newspaper column «Dear Abby». Pauline was born into a family of Russian Jewish immigrants. Dean's father, Artie Pfeffer, was killed in action in Vietnam when the future congressman was only 6 months old.
By the way, Jewish roots are evident in the life of Dean Phillips even now. He was once recognized by the Minnesota-based American Jewish World for his work on the board of Temple Israel in Minneapolis.
Over the past year, the Democratic politician has become the most prominent member of his party calling on Biden not to seek re-election. He warned that the party needed a new generation of leaders to take the lead.
This position cost him support within the Democratic wing. Phillips announced earlier in October that he would step down as co-chair of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee. This happened after he was called “on the carpet” during a closed meeting to express dissatisfaction with his position regarding Biden’s re-election.
After leaving the committee, Phillips noted that he felt «liberated» and could now speak more freely. He continued to argue that while he believes Biden is a great president, polls show voters are concerned about his age and his job approval ratings are dangerously low.
“I don't know how anyone can ignore what we're hearing. what we see, what we feel and what we read. And all this points to the same thing. If the Democrats don’t listen right now, I’m afraid the consequences will be another Trump administration,” he said in an interview with an American television channel.
His nomination was suspiciously successful. In a September CNN poll, two-thirds of Democrats said they wanted to see a Democratic candidate other than Biden. Remarkably, about half of Democrats cited Biden's age as the biggest challenge in his 2024 campaign.
By the way, Dean Phillips was preparing the ground for his future nomination back in the summer of this year. After Biden announced he would seek a second term in April, Phillips called on other Democratic leaders to challenge the incumbent and hinted that he might run himself. Already in July, Phillips met with donors in New York to discuss a possible bid.
Rumors about the presidential ambitions of the “mild-mannered Democrat” only began to grow after that. They began to look at him with particular suspicion after addressing the leaders of New Hampshire. This week (before Dean Phillips officially announced his presidential bid), the Dean Phillips for President bus was spotted driving through Ohio, presumably on its way to the Granite State.
Nobody, in fact, suspected anything. In Congress, Phillips consistently voted with the president and did not criticize his policy positions, as stated by the White House.
But statements like these began to appear more and more often: “I think President Biden has done an impressive job for our country , but it's not a matter of the past. This election is about the future. I will not sit still, I will not remain silent in the face of numbers that so clearly indicate that next November we will face an emergency.”
Biden allies have called talk of Phillips running a distraction that will only highlight the president's weaknesses. Phillips tried to contact Biden in August, but the president was unavailable, a senior US source said. Phillips then spoke with White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, who “listened to him,” but responded with conviction: “The President is the man who can win in 2024 and get the job done.”
Phillips explained to CNN that he was trying to talk to Biden «out of courtesy, to let him know my intentions.» But somehow it all ended with a “short but friendly” conversation with Zients.
Phillips' campaign strategy is said to be already causing headaches for the Democratic Party. The fact is that the potential US president has focused his campaign specifically on New Hampshire. Phillips has already booked $50,000 worth of ad time in the state, according to ad tracking firm AdImpact. As they say, he can afford it. But there is another rather clever twist to this.
Biden will not appear on the primary election ballot in the Granite State. The decision came after the Democratic National Committee announced that the state «does not fit the party's presidential nomination calendar.»
Former Republican strategist Steve Schmidt is advising the Democratic candidate, sources close to Phillips' campaign said. Schmidt, who left the GOP in 2018, previously worked on the campaigns of former President George W. Bush and Arizona Sen. John McCain.
On his podcast «Alert with Steve Schmidt» in September, the strategist endorsed Phillips, saying, » If you went to New Hampshire and said, “I'm Dean Phillips, I'm running for president and I'm seeking to become the Democratic nominee,” a lot of people would be screaming and cheering in Washington and other parts of the country.
But the path to the presidency for Phillips is unlikely to be easy. Although his personal wealth is in the tens of millions, he will likely have a hard time finding major Democratic donors who are not already backing Biden. Phillips, by the way, was one of the first to admit that he lacks recognition, like some other fellow party candidates.
And in general, when New Hampshire lost its status as a primary state, South Carolina took its place. Palm State Democratic Party Chair Crystal Spain said: “South Carolina is an important testing ground for presidential candidates, and so far Dean Phillips has failed to deliver. South Carolina is thrilled to once again endorse President Biden as our candidate.»
Some of Phillips's colleagues consider his undertaking to be so ambitious that they perceive it only as a vanity step. A number of leading Democrats have even privately linked this to a midlife crisis. Although he is already 54 years old, and by the time of the elections he will be 55… But there are those who believe that Phillips was simply so disappointed with Biden that he took such a “quixotic” step. Who is right here is anyone's guess.
Many believe his presidential campaign «Dean 24, Inc.» will closely resemble his 2018 bid for Congress. The politician then eschewed much of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's advice, relying instead on his deep marketing expertise. He drove a 1960 International Harvester milk truck into the cities and towns of his suburban House District of Minneapolis, holding retail-heavy elections. He has advocated spending less on television than on digital advertising, while largely refusing to voice negative opinions about his Republican opponent.
His approach has infuriated many Democrats in Washington. But he won anyway, winning a seat that Democrats hadn't elected to in decades. A bus that passed through New Hampshire this week with the sign «All Are Invited» brought back those memories. And who knows how this could turn the race.
His views are unlikely to differ from Biden's. It is important to understand that his main task now is to try to bring a new generation of Democrats to the American political elite (and specifically to the Democratic Party). No more. However, perhaps no one has ever so openly posed such a direct and fearless challenge to the current leader of the country.