Dean Phillips ends a long-running presidential bid

Representative Dean Phillips of Minnesota on Wednesday suspended his long-running campaign for the Democratic nomination and endorsed President Biden.

“To everyone who has supported my efforts, thank you. We will continue the important work to ensure a more responsive, democratic and generationally diverse political system.” he wrote in a post on X. “But today, in light of the grim reality we face, I ask you to join me in mobilizing, energizing and doing all you can to put a man of decency and integrity in the White House to hold. That’s Joe Biden.”

Mr. Phillips, Mr. Biden’s main Democratic rival, had entered the race in October — in the absence of other serious challengers in the primaries — after months of publicly arguing that the president was a weak candidate. Spending millions of his own money on his campaign, Mr. Phillips, one of the wealthiest members of Congresspointed to Mr. Biden’s age and low approval ratings as signs that voters wanted a younger, new generation of leaders.

But while voters have indeed repeatedly indicated that they do not want a rematch between Mr. Biden and Donald J. Trump, they have also indicated that they have no interest in Mr. Phillips as a Democratic alternative.

In the final days of his campaign, the Minnesota congressman could barely disguise how that had hurt his feelings. “Congratulations to Joe Biden, Uncomposed, Marianne Williamson and Nikki Haley for showing more appeal to Democratic Party loyalists than I do,” he wrote on social media when he finished last place in state after state on Super Tuesday night.

Phillips’ quixotic presidential campaign culminated with a disappointing second-place finish in the New Hampshire primary. After campaigning extensively in the state, Mr. Phillips lost to Mr. Biden by a wide margin, receiving less than 20 percent of the vote, despite the fact that the president was not even on the ballot.

The Phillips campaign declined sharply from then on. Mr. Phillips, a moderate member of the House of Representatives, suffered an embarrassing defeat in South Carolina, the Democrats’ first official primary, falling to last place behind Mr. Biden and Ms. Williamson, a self-help author, with 1.7 percent of the votes. . Mr Phillips had tried to manage expectations, declaring the day before the primaries that Mr. Biden “should get 95 percent of the votes in South Carolina.” His prediction was not far off.

But Mr. Phillips stayed in the race and set his sights on the Michigan primary in late February. He won less than 3 percent of the vote there, coming in fourth behind Ms. Williamson, who had dropped out weeks earlier, and the ‘uncommitted’ voting option – which secured more than 13 percent of the vote in protest against the government -Biden. position on the war in Gaza.

From there, Mr. Phillips’ campaign limped to Super Tuesday, where he finished far behind Mr. Biden and even Ms. Williamson in most states.

Once a member of the Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives, Mr. Phillips paid a heavy price for his failed challenge to Mr. Biden. He resigned his leadership position when he considered entering the race, and his influence within the party waned when he openly criticized the president’s candidacy. By the time Phillips announced his campaign, Democratic lawmakers and party officials were fed up with him have openly expressed their contempt for its main challenge.

Mr. Phillips, a Minnesota liquor company heir who at one point also headed the Talenti ice cream company, proudly declared at the start of his campaign that he “torpedoed” his career in Congress. Shortly afterward, he said he would not run for re-election in his congressional seat, a district that includes the Minneapolis suburbs. He said he spent at least $4 million of his own money on his failed campaign a year-end filing with the Federal Election Commission.