Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota is expected on Friday to announce a long-shot Democratic primary challenge against President Biden, according to people familiar with the lawmaker’s plans.
And the launch of Phillips’ Democratic campaign for the White House will come in New Hampshire, on the last day for candidates to file to place their name on the state’s famed first-in-the-nation presidential primary.
The 54-year-old millionaire businessman and co-founder of a gelato company turned three-term House Democrat is expected to hold an event on the plaza outside New Hampshire’s Statehouse in Concord, and to file for the primary inside the building, in the Secretary of State’s office, those familiar with his plans confirm to Fox News.
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Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN), who’s expected to launch a 2024 Democratic presidential primary challenge against President Biden, speaks at a news conference in Washington, D.C., on December 21, 2020. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno/File Photo (REUTERS/Ken Cedeno)
“He has not actually scheduled a time with my office. I know that he has scheduled some space on the front lawn of the statehouse,” New Hampshire Secretary of State Dave Scanlan told reporters on Tuesday.
And Scanlan said that a primary challenge by Phillips against the 80-year-old Biden “I think that would a healthy thing for the New Hampshire primary.”
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A video posted to social media Tuesday showed a bus decorated with “Dean Phillips for President” signage traveling along an Ohio highway.
Phillips, who represents a district in suburban Minneapolis, recently spoke by phone with longtime New Hampshire Democratic Party chair Ray Buckley.
Buckley shared with Fox News that he told Phillips “of course we would be gracious hosts, as is our tradition, but both polling and grassroots interactions in New Hampshire reveal a high level of support for President Biden among the likely voters. It would be a tough challenge for Phillips or anyone. But sure, c’mon on up! “
Phillips, citing the president’s age, has repeatedly criticized Biden for “not passing the torch” to the next generation of Democratic leaders and urged that a serious contender primary challenge the president for the party’s 2024 nomination.
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When no other Democrats considered running against Biden, Phillips began to consider himself for the mission. Earlier this month he told MPR News (Minnesota Public Radio) that “it’s healthy to have alternatives. I think voters are demanding it.”
But Phillips – who recently stepped away from his leadership role as co-chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee due to his potential White House bid – let lapse a September deadline he set for himself to decide whether he’d launch a primary challenge against the president. And Phillips last week missed a deadline to place his name on the ballot in Nevada, which is holding its presidential primary on Feb. 6 in the Democratic Party’s nominating calendar.
According to Democratic National Committee, which earlier this year upended years of tradition by revamping their longstanding nominating calendar, the Silver State is supposed to vote second, along with New Hampshire, three days after South Carolina’s Feb. 3 kick off primary.
A sign outside the State house in Concord, New Hampshire marks the state’s cherished century old first-in-the-nation presidential primary status. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser )
It’s all-but-certain that New Hampshire will move up the date of its primary to late January, in accordance with a state law that mandates the Granite State’s primary is held seven days ahead of a similar contest.
With New Hampshire on course to hold what is certain to be a primary that’s out of compliance with the Democratic National Committee’s revamped 2024 nominating calendar, Biden will avoid the unsanctioned contest.
And on Tuesday the president’s 2024 re-election campaign announced that Biden would not file to place his name on New Hampshire’s ballot. Top Democrats in the state now plan to mount a write-in effort on behalf of the president.
President Biden headlines a labor rally, on June 17, 2023 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The president is running in 2024 for a second term in the White House (AP )
While the president’s the commanding front-runner for his party’s nomination, polls indicate Biden has faces mounting concerns from Democrats over his age and physical and mental stamina.
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The president is already facing a long-shot primary challenge from best-selling author spiritual adviser Marianne Williamson, who is making her second straight White House run.
Democratic presidential candidate and author Marianne Williamson speaks after filing to put her name on the ballot for the primary election with New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan in Concord, New Hampshire, U.S., October 12, 2023. REUTERS/Brian Snyder (REUTERS/Brian Snyder)
Biden was also facing an uphill primary challenge from environmental lawyer and high-profile vaccine critic Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is a scion of arguably the nation’s most famous family political dynasty.
But Kennedy announced at a campaign event in Philadelphia earlier this month that he would now seek the White House as an independent candidate.
The DNC is fully backing Biden, as the president campaigns for a second four-year term in the White House. At its winter meeting in February the DNC unanimously passed a resolution committing its “full and complete support” for the re-election of Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Additionally, the DNC has said there will be no primary debates between Biden and any of his challengers.
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Williamson, Kennedy and others in the party criticized the DNC and Biden, but there is political precedent for the move. No incumbent president has participated in primary debates in modern times.
Jim Demers, a longtime New Hampshire based political consultant and lobbyist who is helping to lead the write-in effort for Biden, terms a primary challenge by Phillips “a ridiculous idea.”
“Democrats in New Hampshire support the president,” Demers told Fox News. “So if his mission is to divide Democrats and help [former President] Donald Trump, then that’s what he’s doing.”