Representative Dean Phillips of Minnesota has resigned his campaign He ended his long-running bid for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination White House.
“I’m going to stop my campaign and now I’m going to support President Biden because the choices are very clear,” he said in an interview with Minnesota radio on WCCO’s “The Chad Hartman Show.”
“The alternative Donald Trump is a very dangerous, dangerous person,” he continued. “I would simply invite and encourage Haley supporters, Trump supporters, disloyal supporters to unite behind decency and integrity.”
“That means supporting Joe Biden, and I’m going to do that right now,” he said, adding, “I’m going to do everything humanly possible to get Joe Biden re-elected this November because it’s existential.”
Biden he called Phillips after him He stopped his appeal to the White House, according to Katie Dolan, former national press secretary for Phillips’ campaign. It was unclear Wednesday afternoon what the two discussed or how much they talked.
Biden later applauded Phillips’ support at X.
“Dean, thanks for the kind words. And welcome to the team. We need you,” Biden he wrote In response to a Phillips tweet supporting Biden and praising his “empathy and kindness.”
Phillips, 55, started his campaign challenged Biden in October. The three-term congressman said that he had to fight with the leader of his party because he claimed that Biden would lose to former President Donald Trump in the general elections to be held in November.
“I’m not going to sit still, I’m not going to be complacent in the face of numbers that clearly say we’re going to face an emergency next November,” Phillips said in an interview with CBS News last fall.
Speaking on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” program shortly afterward, Phillips said, “Right now, if this election were held today, President Biden would lose, and that’s an existential threat to the future of the United States of America. It’s not going to happen under my watch.”
Phillips criticized the president’s handling of the migrant flow at the southern border, but said he would not “demean” or “demean” Biden. However, according to his campaign website, Phillips’ position on the matter It matched Biden’s. He said he supports “enhanced border security, a path to citizenship for those who are here now, and a streamlined process for those who want to enter the country legally.”
His views on other issues, such as abortion and the economy, also mirrored those of Biden.
His decision to drop out comes after he announced in November that he would not seek re-election to the House of Representatives representing Minnesota’s 3rd Congressional District. Before Phillips entered the presidential race, Democratic National Committee member Ron Harris, He said he would run for Phillips’ House seat in 2024.
Phillips also announced that he will not run for president as an independent while in the race.
The Minnesota Democrat gained some support early in the primary season. The day before the New Hampshire primary, the state’s largest newspaper, the New Hampshire Union Leader, endorsed him for the Democratic nomination.
He and GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley were competing to win the support of the same independent or undeclared voters in the state.
In the days leading up to the primary, Phillips spent time campaigning in New Hampshire, including Saturday in Nashua, where he said Biden shouldn’t run again — especially because he’s 81 years old.
“We all know that Joe Biden is a good person. I respect him,” Phillips said. “But he had to pass the torch. He shouldn’t run again. His age, yes, his stage of life. He’s in decline. We have very serious problems in this world, costs, chaos, challenges facing this country that I think , the solution of any of these two people is very difficult”.
On Sunday in Rochester, New Hampshire, Phillips presented himself as the better candidate because he was younger. “Joe Biden has nothing to do with this generation of newly elected members of Congress,” he said. “He hasn’t been in the Senate in years.”
Phillips has served in the House since 2019 and is a member of the Bipartisan Task Force.