Dean Phillips, Bill Ackman, a $1 million gift and a website overhaul

The campaign website for Rep. Dean Phillips, the Minnesota Democrat who is challenging President Biden in the long run, has a policy platform that signals liberal bona fides tempered by the practicality of a Midwestern businessman. It includes headlines like “Climate Action,” “Women's Health and Economic Security,” and “Immigration Reform.”

There was one header sometime on Tuesday changed. Gone was “diversity, equity and inclusion.” Instead: 'Equity and Restorative Justice'.

The text below the headline – including recognition of racial differences and vague promises to ensure equal opportunities – remained untouched. But the adjustment was significant nonetheless. Even more so was the timing: on Saturday, Mr. Phillips had received the recommendation from William A. Ackman, the billionaire investor who has become an outspoken critic of so-called DEI programs in higher education in recent months.

Mr. Ackman not only supported Mr. Phillips; in a lengthy post on , after the federal holiday for Martin Luther King's birthday, he planned to transfer $1 million to We Deserve Better, a super PAC formed late last year that supported Mr. Phillips supports.

Mr. Ackman's online endorsement drew responses from a number of X users who noticed the DEI language on Mr. Phillips' campaign platform. Responding to a post on Tuesday morning, Mr. Ackman addressed them, saying that Mr. Phillips “didn't understand DEI until recently.”

He added: “I expect that statement will be immediately revised.” Tuesday evening was the day.

In an interview on Wednesday, Mr. Ackman provided additional backstory. He said he sent Mr. Phillips a handful of articles over the weekend, including a column in The New York Times, that tried to distinguish between what Mr. Ackman called the “DEI movement” and the principles of diversity and inclusion that Mr. Ackman said he believes in it, and the congressman has also supported it.

For Mr. Ackman, and for many Republicans and segments of the moderate left, diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, programs have become a bugaboo, shorthand for liberal hypocrisy in academia and bad business practices.

“I have come to the conclusion that DEI does not mean what it says,” Mr. Ackman said in the interview. He said he had hoped Mr Phillips would change his thinking.

But Mr Ackman rejected any suggestion that his hefty financial contribution had played any role in tweaking Mr Phillips' campaign platform, which Politico reported this on Tuesday.

“I'm not paying him any money to change his website,” Mr. Ackman said in response to a question about the timing of the wording change. He noted that the main contribution was made to a super PAC, which is legally separate from the campaign. “I support this man because I think he could be a great president.”

Mr. Ackman said he had spoken to Mr. Phillips about the website change, but not until Wednesday afternoon, he said — after the fact. “He said he changed it because even though these are things he believes in, he didn't consider it a movement,” Mr. Ackman said.

A spokeswoman for Mr.'s campaign. Phillips, Katie Dolan, confirmed a phone call took place Wednesday but said the campaign had no details about what they discussed. “Representative Phillips is one of the few members of Congress who has never accepted PAC money, lobbyist money, or had a leadership PAC,” Ms. Dolan said. “Representative Phillips is not bought.”

She also provided a statement from Mr Phillips, in which he said: “I support diversity. Period of time. I support equality. Period of time. I support inclusion. Period of time. It is incredible how the media becomes all interested in litigating slogans, but has no interest in proposals to solve the problems.”

Mr. Phillips, 54, who has poured at least $5 million of his own money into his campaign, is a multimillionaire himself, according to Ms. Dolan, who has helped run his family. spirits distilling empire and later to build the Talenti gelato behemoth. He entered the race for the Democratic nomination in October and has launched his bid in an urgent appeal to the Biden-skeptical middle. He acts as a centrist, but with flashes of support for left and right positions. In December, he embraced “Medicare for all,” a favorite of the Bernie Sanders wing of the party.

In another sign of his courtship with the contrarian center, Mr. Phillips will participate in two campaign events in New Hampshire on Thursday with Andrew Yang, a former Democratic presidential and New York mayoral candidate who co-founded the Forward Party.

Mr. Phillips is focusing on New Hampshire, where the Jan. 23 primary has bypassed Mr. Biden and the Democratic Party in favor of next month's South Carolina primary. Mr. Phillips is on the ballot in New Hampshire, while Mr. Biden's supporters will have to write in his name.

On Monday, his campaign released his campaign latest television commercial, narrated by, who else, Bigfoot. “I'm something of an expert on elusive creatures,” says Bigfoot. “So I challenged myself to find President Biden in New Hampshire during this primary season.”

“I looked for him everywhere,” says Bigfoot. “No, Joep. But I kept seeing this man, this man, Dean Phillips, was everywhere. According to AdImpact, a media tracking company, the ad was placed in the New Hampshire broadcast market with a purchase price of more than $200,000.

Mr. Ackman is waging a public war against institutions he believes have become far-left, suppressing free speech and allowing double standards in the name of diversity. He led an online campaign against Harvard President Claudine Gay, who resigned amid accusations of plagiarism from other scientists and of not taking a strong enough stand against anti-Semitism on campus.

Mr. Ackman, 57, has a history of supporting Democrats. This cycle, however, his contributions extend further: He has maxed out personal contributions to the campaigns of Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Chris Christie, Senator Jon Tester of Montana, Representative Ro Khanna of California, and Vivek Ramaswamy.

Mr. Phillips is his largest investment to date. The super PAC to which he contributed has taken out ads urging Democrats and independents to “wake up” to the possibility that former President Donald J. Trump could defeat Mr. Biden in a “nobody wants” matchup.

The identities of the super PAC's other donors won't be available until the federal filing occurs at the end of this month. Records show We Deserve Better has already spent $1.4 million supporting Mr. Phillips in New Hampshire.