WASHINGTON — Rep. Dean Phillips said he doesn’t know what his next act will be or even where he’ll go after leaving Congress at the end of this session, a strange place to be for a man known for accomplishment and success.
Phillips said he will return to the business world in which he excelled but will try to keep a “toe in” efforts to reform the political system.
Yet Phillips, 55, said he doesn’t know what his future will look like, not exactly, or even where he will land after torpedoing his political career by challenging President Joe Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination.
“I have my home in Minnesota and a lot of roots there, but it’s a big world,” Phillips said. “One of the joys of this experience has been the exposure to it. So, I don’t know where I’m going to settle.”
Phillips appears to have carefully analyzed what happened after he decided to challenge Biden. He blames the national political parties, the media and even “apathetic” voters for his failure to succeed as a modern day Paul Revere, warning his party of the dangers of allowing an aging Biden to once again take on Donald Trump.
Phillips, who represents a suburban Twin Cities district in Congress, said he was surprised by the strength of the nation’s two-party system, a “duopoly” that has “a decreasing focus on the country and an increasing focus on winning.”
“We have disincentives to do what the country needs and incentives to stick around and keep winning,” he said.
Phillips also said the strength of the two-party system has enraptured the press, which was quick to cover the stumbles and fumbles of his hastily put together and short-lived campaign.
Phillips’s bid for the White House began at the end of October and ended after March’s Super Tuesday’s primaries, in which Phillips trailed either or both author Marianne Williamson and “uncommitted” in every state he was on the ballot.
“We don’t have state-controlled media in the United States, but we have some degree of party-controlled media in the United States,” Phillips said.
He sunk at least $5.25 million into his campaign. Phillips can probably afford the loss because his estimated net worth has been assessed at more than $70 million.
He has served as the president of The Phillips Distilling Company and founded Talenti gelato, which he sold to Unilever in 2014. He also co-owned Penny’s Coffee until its Minneapolis and Wayzata cafes closed.
The election of Trump in 2016 prompted Philips, who is married and has two daughters, to consider switching his focus from business to politics.
David Schultz, political science professor at Hamline University, said that a year before Phillips ran for office, the businessman asked the professor to meet him for coffee to ask his advice.
“But it struck me he had already decided to run,” Schultz said.
Shooting the messenger
Phillips defeated incumbent Republican Eric Paulsen in the midterm elections of 2018, becoming the first Democrat to hold the 3rd District seat since 1961.
He identified as a centrist, began climbing the party ladder and was given a leadership job last year as co-chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, a job that involved crafting political messaging for his party.
But, as far as his party was concerned, Phillips came up with the wrong message — becoming the first Democrat to publicly say the 81-year-old Biden was too old to run for another term.
He had to leave his leadership post and earned the enmity of Democrats on Capitol Hill and DFLers in Minnesota with his campaign to replace Biden — first by trying to find other Democrats to run against the president, then by doing it himself.
Phillips likes to say he said “the quiet part out loud.” Biden’s age and health did become a concern for the Democratic Party and also, polls showed, for Democratic voters.
“In many ways, he was probably correct on the message,” Schultz said. “It was a little bit like shooting the messenger.”
But Shultz said Phillips should have known better, having been in his third term in Congress.
“He should have learned the degree of polarization and the strength of party politics after a couple of terms in Congress,” Schultz said. “If he doesn’t understand why he failed and why he’s a pariah, he’s even more naïve than we believed.”
Yet Phillips refuses to believe that Americans have hunkered down in political party silos and have no use for a candidate that can bridge partisan divides.
“The country is not as nearly divided as ‘anger-tainment’ would have us believe,” he said. “The country is apathetic and that is the biggest threat.”
Phillips has vowed to work for Biden’s re-election. He’s a little regretful that he’s not working for his own re-election, having decided to not seek another term just before he began his run for president.
“I expected to be in Congress a little longer,” he said a bit ruefully. “Although I do support term limits.”
He is one of 25 Democrats on a “casualty list” of U.S. House members who will not run for re-election next year because they are retiring or running for higher office.
Phillips is confident state Sen. Kelly Morrison, a Democrat running for his 3rd District seat, will be a great successor.
There are several Republicans running for that open seat, including former judge and state lawmaker Tad Jude, but Phillips said he’s sure Morrison will keep the seat he snatched from the GOP and put in the blue column.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story incorrectly reported that Phillips continues to own Penny’s Coffee. The business has closed.
Ana Radelat
Ana Radelat is MinnPost’s Washington, D.C. correspondent. You can reach her at aradelat@minnpost.com or follow her on Twitter at @radelat.
