Dean Phillips makes a bid without labels like 2024 Trump vs. Biden is

Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota, a Democrat who wants to challenge President Biden in the long run, said Saturday he would consider running for No Labels, a centrist group that is exploring an independent bid, if it turns out the general election would take place. a rematch between Mr. Biden and Donald J. Trump.

In an interview, Mr. Phillips publicly spelled out for the first time the circumstances under which he would accept the No Labels presidential nomination, saying he was in regular contact with Nancy Jacobson, the group's CEO. Democratic allies of Mr. Biden are alarmed by No Labels, worrying that any candidate she represents could siphon votes from him.

“People are criticizing them because they believe whoever they put on their ticket will hurt Joe Biden,” Mr. Phillips said after a town hall event at a senior center in Nashua, N.H. “That is not true. If they put someone at the top of the list who could actually generate votes from Donald Trump, every Democrat in the United States of America should celebrate that. They didn't make that decision.”

Mr. Phillips has a long relationship with Ms. Jacobson and No Labels since his tenure in the group's Congressional Problem Solvers Caucus, an organization that promotes policies with bipartisan support. He said he told Ms Jacobson he would not talk about running as a No Labels candidate “at this time”.

But Mr. Phillips did say he would consider running as the No Labels candidate if polls showed Mr. Biden losing to Mr. Trump in November.

“It should be a rematch between Joe Biden and Donald Trump that shows Joe Biden will almost certainly lose,” Mr. Phillips said. “That's the only condition under which I could even have a conversation with any alternative.”

He added: “Everyone should keep their heads, hearts and minds open because why should we close off the options to defeat this horrific danger to democracy?”

Three months into his presidential campaign, Mr. Phillips remains a little-known curiosity in the New Hampshire primary. a poll published on January 9 from the University of New Hampshire showed him 7 percent support in the Democratic primary. He told reporters on Saturday that he would welcome support from “people in their mid-twenties” in Tuesday's election.

Mr. Phillips published millions of dollars of his own money on his bid, and his TV ads are ubiquitous on New Hampshire television, but it's not clear how much support he has.

New Hampshire voters vastly outnumbered out-of-state students, political tourists and journalists at his Saturday event in Nashua. It is also atypical for presidential candidates to publicly run as a third-party or independent candidate while still competing in a major party's primaries.

Mr. Trump offered a mocking message of support for Mr. Phillips at his own rally on Saturday evening in Manchester, N.H. “Democrats should vote for the congressman,” he said.

Mr. Biden's name will not appear on the New Hampshire primary ballot. His campaign declined to participate after the state declined to cooperate in his shakeup of the Democratic presidential nominating calendar, moving South Carolina into the top spot.

A well-funded group of Biden loyalists has been waging its own campaign in New Hampshire, encouraging Democrats to write Biden's name on the ballot Tuesday.

Groups of Democrats linked to the Biden campaign have been working together for months to undermine Ms. Jacobson's ambitions to offer an alternative presidential candidate in November. They fear that any vote for a third-party or independent presidential candidate will take votes away from Mr. Biden, given his campaign's focus on making the 2024 election a referendum on Mr. Trump's fitness for office.

Ms. Jacobson has tried to recruit Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and former Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, among others, in an effort to find a high-profile figure who could lead No Labels' presidential campaign. Ms. Jacobson has privately told donors that the group plans to choose a Republican as its presidential candidate. Mr. Hogan – who until recently was a member of the board of No Labels – has said so publicly.

A Biden campaign spokesman declined to talk about Mr. Phillips.

Ms. Jacobson said Saturday that it was “too early to speculate” about who No Labels might select as its standard-bearer or whether the group would follow through with its plans to nominate a presidential candidate.

“Dean Phillips is a great member of the Problem Solvers Caucus,” she said. “He embodies the ethos of the No Labels movement.”

In the interview, Mr Phillips repeatedly said he was “not ruling anything out” and criticized the absolutist language of other politicians.

“No Labels can be the goat or the hero,” he said. “I will also do what I can to ensure that they are the latter.”