A ‘Generic Democrat’ Can Win. Can Dean Phillips?

On the trail with the Minnesota longshot trying to primary the president.

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U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips holds a rally outside of the New Hampshire Statehouse after handing over his declaration of candidacy form for President to the New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan, on October 27, 2023 in Concord, New Hampshire. (Photo by Gaelen Morse/Getty Images)

HANOVER, N.H.—As a general rule, politicians want to stand out. But early on in his slapdash, insurgent presidential candidacy, Rep. Dean Phillips wants you to know he’s happy blending in with the crowd.

“I’ve never aspired to be generic,” the Minnesota Democrat tells the hundred-odd bright and polite Ivy League kids who piled into a small auditorium at Dartmouth College on Monday night. “But I’ll be your generic Democrat if that means I can defeat Donald Trump much more ably than President Biden can.”

It’s no secret: Democrats are worried Joe Biden is in trouble. His approval rating is mired in the mid-30s, the lowest mark at this point in a presidential term since Jimmy Carter. His party is deeply divided over his staunch support for Israel in its war against Hamas, and he has no real way of assuaging voters’ biggest concern about his reelection: He’s just too old. One New York Times poll this month found Biden trailing Donald Trump across six battleground states by an average of 4 points—even as Trump trailed an unnamed “Democratic candidate” by 8 points.

And yet there’s been little organized effort—or even public conversation—about the possibility of replacing Biden atop the Democratic ticket. He’s the incumbent, and modern political parties consider it their job to re-elect incumbents. And who would replace him, anyway? California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has presided over a homelessness crisis and the breakdown of social order in his cities? Biden’s vice president, Kamala Harris, who flamed out of the 2020 primary and is just as unpopular as he is? Better to stick with the devil you know.

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  1. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    He should promise free gelato to every American every day of his presidency if he gets elected. I bet he’d get a bump in the polls.

    That would literally be cheaper than most Democratic spending priorities right now.

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  2. Michael Connell

    Very helpful essay. I knew almost nothing about Dean Phillips and I was untroubled by this fact. Although I completely agree with him that Joe Biden is going to loose to Donald Trump, the idea that some pol from Minnesota that I never heard of could be the solution to that problem seemed absurd to me. It still seems a bit crazy and is not likely to succeed, but I really like the Dean Phillips that you have portrayed in this essay. Is the issue of Biden's age deceptive? Is he the leader of the Democratic Party? Even if he was only three days older than Trump, he dotters around like someone with early Parkinson's disease. Read Karen Petrou's essay in the NY Times concerning the delusion of Bidenomics. Dean's fear of the the destruction of democracy if Trump is elected is not delusional.

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  3. Andrew A. Anderson

    Good article. Gave insight into a little know candidate. So, here I am in Spain, and I belong to the Democrats Abroad organization.I vote in Virginia. From my perch, if you will, I see that back home we seem to be headed towards chaos. The issue of Biden being old is deceptive. Biden is the leader of the Democratic Party. Trump is the leader of whatever the GOP is today. Trump is only 3 years younger than Biden. What is important is the message. Are we going to be a Democracy after 2024 or are we going to allow a Dictatorship? The message needs to be clear. Biden is representing Democracy and the Democratic Party needs to hammer that home. Otherwise, we will have chaos after 2024. What we should be doing is contrasting these candidates with the alternative and then ensure that Biden get supported.

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  4. Seth.Depenning

    I am a resident of the Minnesota congressional district that Dean Phillips represents. That doesn’t make me an expert, but let me say this from the point of view of a constituent: I don’t always agree with him on every issue, but I can respect him. He is well spoken, civil, and does try to bring a more moderate, bipartisan tone to our politics. His lack of name recognition, together with the opposition of the Democratic Party establishment work against him, but quite frankly he’s the type of candidate they should be putting forward in 2024.

    The eagerness of so many Democratic politicians and media commentators to dismiss the candidacy of someone who is merely giving voice to what most Americans want (alternatives to a Trump-Biden rematch) is disheartening.

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    1. Jack H Wolf

      Seth, agree with you totally. There is a disconnect between Democrats not wanting Biden- about 60% in the polls, but then treating Phillips like he is a renegade. I am glad that you like him. He is a member of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, and might fulfill Biden's promise to be bipartisan, where, once elected, he seemed more concerned about keeping cred with the progressives, from the Harris pick to Build Back Better, and the student loan executive over reach.

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  5. Avatar photo
    Show Jay Janney the 🚪!

    He needs to wear a white t-shirt that reads "POTUS nominee". That'll make him the generic candidate!

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  6. Scianti7

    It probably doesn't bode well for Phillips or The Democrats that he is idealizing the person that got Johnson to drop out of the race that was then lost to Nixon.

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  7. Jack H Wolf

    Kudos that TD has finally done an article about Phillips.
    I am a Phillips supporter and you may have seen me bitching in the comments about the big media silence. Sure, he is a long shot, but less so than Chris Christie who I read about often. And being an unknown quantity he at least has the possibility of going somewhere as opposed to the NJ Governor, bless his heart, whose future is being shaped as a CNN commentator.
    Re "Phillips at times seeming more annoyed with the left wing of his own party than with the president he’s running against."
    I think this is necessary. His point, which seems lost on the Democrats circling the wagons and seeing him as a threat, is that he is not running to hurt Biden, as he is smart enough to know his campaign is a longshot, and the important goal is to beat Trump, which is why he is running, as Biden is clearly losing. (btw the article mentions the NYTimes/Sierra swing state polls which were abysmal with Biden behind in 5/6 swing states (AZ, GA, NV, PA, MI, WI) but this was replicated in the following week by Emerson and Morning Consult, all reputable pollsters with, if anything a historical Dem bias.
    As a conservative centrist Dem, I like Phillips. My go to, on seeing where on the spectrum a Dem lies, is to look at "Progressive Punch" rankings which rate the candidates by how much they follow the progressive line. So AOC is at about 99% and the most conservative Henry Cuellar at 50% and Phillips is 141st among 212 Dems so somewhere between the median and least progressive. He also has distinguished himself from Biden by speaking for a stronger border, supporting marijuana legalization, and by being a member of the Problem Solvers bipartisan caucus and being ranked near the top, 9 of 212 Dems in the Lugar- McCourt Bipartisan Index which not only looks at votes but bipartisan sponsorship etc.
    Biden campaigned and won as a moderate, before governing to appeal to the progressives, thus losing the support of Independents.

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    1. Seth.Depenning

      I think his willingness to separate from the extremes of his party should give him more credibility with those of us who are tired of the radicalism in both ends of the spectrum.

      He is not, for example, a controversial figure like squad member Ilhan Omar in our neighboring congressional district.

      Admittedly I may be biased as a resident of his MN-3 district, but he’s the profile and persona Democrats would look for if they were smart and responsive to the American people.

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      1. Jack H Wolf

        Exactly. I dont pay much attention to Ilhan Omar any more than Marjorie Taylor Greene, but I do think Biden ran as a moderate and then governed as a progressive, although not a firebrand like Omar, but the second coming of FDR, and his choice of Harris seems to be about his feeling that he had to appease the progressives, although now with his polls in the toilet he seems to be tacking center on immigration and crime which is the GOPs best weapons. I do credit Biden with being good on Ukraine and Israel in a country that seems to be tacking isolationist ever since Iraq.
        Phillips as a member of the bipartisan Problem Solvers might turn out to be more like I had hoped Biden will.

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  8. R. James

    The general dissatisfaction with Biden amongst Democrats and the mishandling of the New Hampshire primary by the DNC create a very real opening for Dean Phillips in New Hampshire. If Phillips can pick off New Hampshire, I think that will be a game changer for the Democrat race.

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    1. Jack H Wolf

      I hope so, but Biden in ducking NH and the DNC in denying NH delegates, are trying to make it irrelevant. Whether the media would play up a Phillips win, I dont know, there seems to be a news blackout on the man, the conventional wisdom, and likely reality, that he has no chance, but that becomes a self fulfilling prophecy if he gets no coverage. Moving up SC was the DNC working for Biden just as the RNC sewed it up for Trump by making something like 10 more state's delegate allocation, plurality winner takes all. Fortunately for Dems most states are awarded proportionally but I don't know if Phillips is even able to get on the ballot everywhere given his late start.

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  9. Avatar photo
    MattA

    I’d vote for him.
    That’s one more vote than Biden would get. And I’m in a swing state.

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  10. Avatar photo
    Raiderduck

    The difference between Phillips and McCarthy is that McCarthy had a major break with LBJ over pausing the bombing in North Vietnam, and that was enough to make a bunch of New Hampshire voters flip.

    Phillips doesn't really have a similar pet issue to focus on. Even if he finds one, the minute Newsom and/or Whitmer smells blood, they'll jump in and leave Phillips in the dust, just like RFK (the original, not the antivaxxer lout currently using his name) jumped in and left McCarthy in the dust in 1968.

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    1. Jack H Wolf

      And Phillips tried to enlist better known Dems for 6 months before finally entering, specifically I read he asked Whitmer and has been encouraging others to run. So imo if he got left in the dust, that would suit him, his rasion d'etre is that Biden is going to lose, and although the future is unpredictable the betting markets are clearly picking Trump now.

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    2. R. James

      Perhaps, but that still means that Biden will also be left in the dust, which is what Phillips ultimately wants. Remember Phillips only got in after he tried to persuade more well known Democrats to run against Biden.

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