Phillips Banking on Write-In Upset in New Hampshire

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Despite the polls and the fact the Democratic National Committee likely won’t give more than lip service to the results, Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., is campaigning like a contender in New Hampshire, hoping to defeat a “write-in” president and give his quest for the White House the mojo it needs to continue.

Since announcing his decision to retire from Congress and run a primary campaign against President Joe Biden, Phillips has been campaigning hard in the Granite State, putting in long days to reach multiple events.

This past week his schedule included stops at everything from a food pantry to retirements to a “Dialing for Dean” volunteer event, all in a bid to shake the label of an underdog.

The latest poll from Saint Anselm College in Goffstown, New Hampshire, shows President Biden has a commanding lead in a state he’s not even competing in, garnering 50% of the hypothetical vote.

Phillips comes in with 10%, while Biden’s other challenger, Marianne Williamson, is trailing with 7%.

But as long as he keeps going, Phillips believes the effort will be worth it.

“As long as people get to meet me, I think we’re going to win,” he told Manchester radio station WMUR this week.

“Is it hard? Of course, it’s hard. Am I an underdog? Absolutely,” he told the station. “But this is the opportunity for the country to take a different path if the country is ready to.”

Phillips, born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on Jan. 20, 1969, never knew his father, Artie Pfefer, who died in Vietnam six months after his son’s birth. His mother, the former DeeDee Cohen later married Eddie Phillips, heir to the Phillips Distilling Company.

After a stint at the distillery as president and CEO, Phillips went on to co-own two companies of his own, Talenti Gelato and Penny’s Coffee, the latter of which he still owns.

In 2019, he defeated six-term Republican incumbent Erik Paulsen, and by flipping the once staunchly GOP-supporting district, he became the first Democrat to win the seat since 1958. He has since been reelected twice, and now serves as the top Democrat on a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee.

Before beginning his primary campaign, he was also a member of the House Democratic Conference’s leadership, serving as co-chair of its Democratic Policy and Communications Committee.

Phillips isn’t running against Biden due to policy differences.

According to the website FiveThirtyEight, which, among other things, tracks congressional voting records, Phillips voted with Biden’s stated public policy positions 100% of the time.

The soon-to-be ex-congressman’s concerns all revolve around the president’s age and his sagging poll numbers. 

If he ultimately were to win, Biden will be 82 years old when he gives his second inaugural speech, and according to a Gallup poll released just this morning, the president is entering 2024 with a dismal approval rating of 39% — the worst of any modern-day president seeking reelection at the same point.

With that as context, Phillips has hit the campaign trail in New Hampshire telling reporters “voters want choices.”

“And that’s especially true in a year like this where the risk of losing to Donald Trump is a huge concern to many of us and … the future of our country,” he said.

The rub is, in terms of the primary ballot, he’s running against an opponent whose name won’t even be on it.

This is the result of the state’s dispute with the DNC and the Biden camp over a change in primary rules that would have South Carolina go first in the nominating process in 2024, breaking a 103-year-old tradition that New Hampshire hold the first-in-the-nation primary.

According to the DNC, New Hampshire just isn’t a diverse enough early proving ground for presidential candidates and doesn’t reflect the ethnic and racial makeup of voters nationally.

In November, New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan responded by defying the committee and setting the state’s primary date as Jan. 23.

As a result, the state’s delegates won’t be seated at the Democratic convention next summer and anyone who puts their name on the New Hampshire ballot could face sanctions from the national party.

Standing with the party, Biden didn’t register to run in the state and he’s now the first sitting president not to appear on the New Hampshire primary ballot.

That said, Phillips, Williamson and 19 other candidates will appear on the Democratic primary ballot next month.

Now, some top Democrats are pressing ahead with a write-in campaign aimed at preventing Biden from potentially suffering an embarrassing loss.

The group filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission under the name “Granite State Write-In” in October. The Biden campaign and the state Democratic Party are not involved in the campaign. 

In a launch email the group said, “It’s important to show the world that thousands of New Hampshire voters are supporting President Joe Biden as he protects our freedoms, stands up to the MAGA extremists, keeps us safe and strong at home and abroad, and builds an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top. 

“While misguided DNC rules will keep Joe Biden off the presidential primary ballot here in our state, New Hampshire Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents overwhelmingly support Joe Biden and plan to write him in when our state once again holds the first-in-the-nation primary this winter,” the group said.

Phillips responded in a CNN interview in October, saying he’s not running against Biden so much has running “to provide people a choice because if Democrats with a big ‘D’ defeat democracy with a small ‘d’ by pushing people aside, telling them to stand down and get out, that is antithetical to meeting the moment.” 

He added: “It’s our generation’s turn to take those reins.”

On Wednesday, Phillips appeared to begin to finally take steps to separate himself from the president’s policy vision, signing on as a co-sponsor of the Medicare for All Act.

The move was a change in position for Phillips, who in the past had largely dismissed the single-payer health care plan as a “nonsensical leftist notion.”

On Wednesday he explained he changed his mind due to a number of factors, including his experience caring for his daughter who had been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and the financial strain of providing health insurance to his employees as a business owner.

“We don’t have a health care system, we have a sick-care system,” Phillips said in a statement post on his congressional website. 

“Representation begins with listening, and I am sick and tired of hearing from hardworking Americans who are choosing between feeding their families and filling prescriptions, from business owners who can’t afford to provide basic benefits to their employees, and from health care providers who are overburdened by pay-for-procedure paperwork,” he said.  

“Medicare for All isn’t just the right decision, it’s the pragmatic and financially sound one,” Phillips continued. “The money is already in the system — we just need to spend it on people, not profits. Americans are begging us to bring their health care costs down and outcomes up.” 

Dan can be reached at [email protected] and @DanMcCue