Democrat Dean Phillips suspends long-shot bid for White House

Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Dean Phillips dropped out of the race Wednesday.

The Minnesota congressman didn’t win any states in the Super Tuesday primaries, losing to incumbent President Biden.

“I ran for Congress in 2018 to resist Donald Trump, I was trapped in the Capitol in 2021 because of Donald Trump, and I ran for President in 2024 to resist Donald Trump again — because Americans were demanding an alternative, and democracy demands options,” Mr Phillips wrote on X.

“But it is clear that alternative is not me. And it is clear that Joe Biden is OUR candidate and OUR opportunity to demonstrate what type of country America is and intends to be.”

Mr. Phillips launched his bid for the White House in October. In his campaign announcement, he said he thought Mr. Biden had done a great job, but that it was time to think about the future.

“I think President Biden has done a spectacular job for our country,” he said. “But it’s not about the past. This is an election about the future.”

He had adopted the phrase “pass the torch” for his campaign as a way to show that he represents the next generation of American leaders.

Mr. Phillips, a businessman and heir to Phillips Distilling Company, started off self-funding his campaign. He grabbed the support of a couple of super PACs and even got a $1 million donation from billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman.

He failed to gain traction as the primary season kicked off. He garnered less than 20% support in New Hampshire’s primary in January, and it went downhill from there.

Mr. Phillips tried to appeal to citizens and lawmakers who consider Mr. Biden too old to serve another term, but as his campaign went on he became even more critical of the president and Vice President Kamala Harris, which some Democrats didn’t like.

Rep. Robert Garcia called out Mr. Phillips for criticizing Ms. Harris.

“Apparently Dean Phillips is floundering so hard that he’s now resorting to attacking Vice-President Harris,” Mr. Garcia, California Democrat, wrote on X. “He better keep the VP’s name out of his mouth and apologize.”

“No one will support him so he’s going to torch his reputation on the way out,” he said. “Sad to see.”

At one point he attacked Mr. Biden and his supporters for not speaking out against a few states keeping him off the ballot.

“Unilaterally taking away the right of rank and file Democrats, including a disproportionate number of Black voters demanding a more affordable America, is reprehensible,” Mr. Phillips said. “If Joe Biden is the best candidate to defeat Donald Trump and lead us to a safer, more affordable future, let him compete for that privilege without his supporters suppressing and disenfranchising millions of voters.”

After Mr. Phillips’ string of losses on Tuesday, he took to X to pessimistically congratulate those who won.

“Congratulations to Joe Biden, Uncommitted, Marianne Williamson, and Nikki Haley for demonstrating more appeal to Democratic Party loyalists than me,” he wrote. 

“And, Jason Palmer,” he said, referring to the entrepreneur that beat Mr. Biden in American Samoa’s primary on Tuesday.