AMAC Exclusive – By Aaron Flanigan
Between the investigations into the Biden family, the increasingly desperate lawsuits against Donald Trump, war in the Middle East, and Joe Biden’s rapidly declining cognitive abilities, the 2024 presidential election is already shaping up to be unpredictable in ways that few could have imagined. But one of the most significant factors driving this historic unpredictability is the growing slate of third-party candidates and intra-party challengers, many of whom are seen as potential spoilers who could make or break Democrats’ hopes at retaining the White House next fall.
One such challenger is Dean Phillips, a third-term Democrat congressman from Minnesota’s 3rd district who last month announced he is running against Biden for the Democrat nomination. Regarded by most other Democrats as a relative “moderate,” Phillips has long stated that Joe Biden is ill-suited to serve as a two-term president and should step down to allow a more broadly appealing alternative to take his place.
Phillips believes that he is that alternative. “I am running for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States because, my friends, it is time for a change,” he said in his October campaign launch. “And I am ready to lead our great nation to a secure and a more prosperous future.”
Despite hailing Biden as a “terrific president,” Phillips insists Biden would lose a general election matchup against Donald Trump—and claims he decided to enter the race only after urging Biden to step down and pressing other Democrat elected officials to enter the primary. “This was not about me,” he recently said to CNN. “But my inability to attract other candidates, to inspire the president to recognize that it is time, compels me to serve my country because it appears that President Joe Biden is going to lose the next election.”
Of course, there is virtually no that chance Phillips will succeed at dethroning Biden as his party’s standard bearer in next year’s primaries. Even though two-thirds of Democrat-leaning voters say they wanted someone other than Biden atop the party’s ticket, recent polling has indicated that Phillips stands at only four percent nationally among Democrats. His lack of name recognition and support from party leadership suggests his White House bid will be a steep uphill battle.
Phillips’s candidacy, however, signals that there is a thirst among some Democrats and Independents for a reversion back to the center—and a retreat from the far-left legislative agenda and war on American culture that has come to define the Democrat platform.
Although Phillips’s campaign has in many ways toed the Democrat Party line—particularly on issues like healthcare, education, guns, the environment, abortion, and “diversity, equity, and inclusion”—he has broken with his party’s talking points on several contentious issues.
In his campaign announcement, for instance, he sounded the alarm on “the chaos at our border,” alluding to the Biden-inflicted border crisis, which has manifested thanks to the Biden administration’s cancellation of Trump-era immigration policies. He also railed against the poor state of the economy and skyrocketing prices—an attitude that stands in sharp contrast to that of the Biden campaign, which continues to bizarrely insist that the economy is strong.
But even despite Phillips’s embrace of most of the left’s key priorities, his candidacy has been met with ridicule from many of his fellow Democrats. “You know, I have to say this about Minnesota: it’s a great state, full of great people. And sometimes they do crazy things,” said Tim Walz, Minnesota’s Democrat governor, referring to Phillips. One House Democrat derided Phillips’s candidacy as an “exercise in futility” that would “essentially [torpedo] his career completely and [destroy] any goodwill he has within the Democratic Party.” Another congressional Democrat lamented the move as a “head-scratcher.”
Nevertheless, Phillips has shown no signs of letting up. As CNN recently reported, Phillips is now significantly ramping up his bid to take down Biden—investing millions of dollars “worth of negative ads in primary states that are likely pivotal in the general election.” Phillips appears to be doubling down specifically on bellwether states like New Hampshire and Michigan, including by planning to hold a whopping 119 town halls in the Granite State.
Whether Phillips intends it or not, however, his campaign may only succeed in harming Biden while implicitly making the case for the eventual Republican nominee. While it’s unclear now if Phillips will manage to gain any momentum, recent history suggests that first-time presidents who face a serious primary challenger (George H.W. Bush in 1992 and Jimmy Carter in 1980) go on to lose general elections.
With the first primary contests just a few months away, any serious moves from Phillips to boost his name ID or attack Biden are worth watching.
Aaron Flanigan is the pen name of a writer in Washington, D.C.
The Democrat Party doesn’t want to admit that their one trick pony, Joe Biden who ran from his basement in 2020 and was already showing significant signs of dementia even back then, can’t run on his record, because all but the most brainwashed leftist realize the American people aren’t buying the BS that the Dems and Team Biden are trying to sell. So to try and deflect from the huge elephant in the room and try to sneak Old Joe or another Democrat to “victory” (any Democrat warm body remaining in the WH to enact the exact the same failed policies) to end up achieving their goal.
One such option is Dean Phillips, who if you look at his voting record for his time in Congress (yes, actually do your homework for once instead of just voting based on TV ads!) has supported whatever the Democrat agenda has been pretty much without question. Even by his own admission, Dean Phillips thinks Biden has done a fabulous job and agrees with all the policies he’s enacted. So, basically Phillips is just another puppet who will execute the same failed policies that supposedly a lot of America dislike. Net change ZERO. His chief asset and reason for running for POTUS is his age, as he is fully aligned with the Democrat agenda. So, pick any middle-aged, left-wing white male socialist off the street and he too could be marketed as a viable contender for the Democrat nomination to be POTUS by the logic the Democrats and the MSM are applying.
The other option the Democrat are using is the so-called No Labels Party, which when you look at who the people are behind the scenes is simply Democrats pretending not to be fully on board with the same Democrat policies of Team Biden. The operative word being pretending. Now Joe Manchin is making noise that he would be open to running for POTUS on the No Labels ticket, which at the end of the day is just electing another Democrat administration that would also just continue the same failed socialist policies we’ve enjoyed the last three years.
Still yet another option would be RFK Jr., who despite his anti-vax stand, is actually very well aligned with all the rest of the main tenets of the current Democrat platform. His appeal to the rose-colored glasses crowd, who long for another JFK in the office, but would end up with something closer to Teddy Kennedy in terms of policy.
Bottom line: The Democrats are counting on one or more of these distractions to peel off just enough Republican votes (the Never Trumpers or the folks who just want to go back to burying their heads in the sand and hoping the SWHTF while they are still alive) to ensure a Democrat remains in the Oval Office. It’s not a bad strategy as far as strategies go, because they only have to peel off a few percentage points and do their usual bag of tricks to “win” another election and throw the last shovel of dirt on the grave that used to the United States.
Look people, this is plain and simple, the Democratic Party Leadership which is run by Far Left Liberal Extremists will ultimately decide who their candidate will be and this unknown go-along won’t be their choice!
It doesn’t matter to me who he is, living through the last few years I will never consider voting for any democrat. They worked hard to tear our great country down with their socialist agenda. I left the Republican Party because of the self centered Rinos.
I wonder if he likes ice cream and poops his pants?
I don’t think there is one cohesive democratic party bound together by solid idea It is fractured and all over the place The radical element has nothing to do with democratic ideas and would like to dominate and dictate Tolerance and acceptance of different opinions which is the idea of it is not in the script The older ones just go with the flow and try to survive the best they can till death do us a part Neither has a country and it’s prosperity on the mind never mind duty or the true purpose for being there I don’t think there is even a handful that might so
If Joe is unable to run, Kamala will claim to be heir just like Hillary thought she was. Harris’ ego will not allow her to step down.
Well that’s interesting because reports are being circulated that the Biden guy is supporting the Gavin Newsom slob for the presidency. And since Joe Biden is a long-time friend and ally of the sinister Ku Klux Klan, his endorsement of Newsom is pretty typical since Newsom has a history of applying black face paint to his facial skin for the purposes of mocking at and displaying his disdain and contempt for black people.