Dean Benson Phillips[1] (né Pfefer; born January 20, 1969)[2] is an American politician, businessman, and former presidential candidate who served from 2019 to 2025 as the U.S. representative for Minnesota's 3rd congressional district.

[8] Despite consistently voting in support of President Joe Biden's policy positions, he challenged him for the Democratic Party nomination in the 2024 U.S. presidential election.

[18] In the summer of 1989, Phillips interned for Senator Patrick Leahy on Capitol Hill, an experience that helped inspire his own public service 30 years later.

[19] Phillips attended Brown University, where he served as consul (president) of the Sigma Chi fraternity, Beta Nu chapter.

He completed his Master of Business Administration at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management in 2000, after which he was named president and CEO of the Company.

He defeated Cole Young in the Democratic primary with 90.7% of the vote[28] and faced off against the Republican nominee, businessman Kendall Qualls.

[35] Phillips sponsored the Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act of 2020, which President Donald Trump signed into law.

[46] On March 5, 2022, Phillips was among the lawmakers who met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about providing additional help to Ukraine in fending off Russia's invasion.

[52] Phillips sponsored the Pathways to Policing Act to provide $50 million to the Department of Justice and local communities in funding to enhance officer recruitment efforts.

[65] He cited a confluence of factors that shifted his view in favor of Medicare for All, including his experience caring for his daughter who had been diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, the financial strain of providing health insurance to his employees as a business owner, and the dynamics of representing a congressional district that includes the headquarters of UnitedHealth Group as well as many people who struggle to access healthcare.

[66] On May 17, 2024, Phillips reintroduced the Voter Choice Act, which provides $40 million in federal matching grants, covering up to 50% of the cost for local and state governments that choose to adopt ranked-choice voting.

[71] In it, he criticized America's two major political parties for "legalized corruption" that prioritizes their own "self-protection over principles"[72] and urged his colleagues to find commonsense solutions and focus on ideas over ideology in solving problems.

[82] Before launching his campaign, Phillips reportedly reached out to other elected Democratic officials, such as Governors Gretchen Whitmer and JB Pritzker, to urge them to enter the presidential primary, but they declined to speak with him directly.

[83][84] Phillips said that he found both the city of Washington D.C. and the reluctance of his fellow Democrats to call on Biden not to run again to be distastefully insular and partisan.

[85] In October 2023, he announced that he would step down as co-chair of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee because his views on the 2024 U.S. presidential election were incongruent with the majority of his caucus.

[86] On October 27, in Concord, New Hampshire, he announced his candidacy for president[87] after filing the paperwork with the Federal Election Commission the previous day.

[88] During his campaign, Phillips argued that Biden would be a weak general-election candidate due to his age and low approval ratings.

[102][103] The New York Times reported that during his campaign, Phillips found himself deplatformed, taken off the ballot in some states and rarely invited on television to make his case.

[106] In a statement to Politico, he called Florida Democrats' handling of the primary process a "blatant act of electoral corruption" and demanded that Biden "condemn and immediately address" it.

An argument and central critique of Phillips's campaign is that if Democrats created room for a competitive primary against the unpopular sitting president, voters would hypothetically have a chance to hear other points of view.

His other first-100-day priorities included "zero-based budgeting” and hiring an international consulting firm to conduct a "top-down assessment" of the federal government.

[121] On January 23, 2024, Phillips scolded reporters during a press gaggle in New Hampshire, saying they weren't focused on the issues Americans care about.

The New York Times dubbed him the "modern Cassandra of American politics" because his warnings about Biden's fitness and age proved prescient despite being ignored.

"[148] On July 22, 2024, the day after Biden withdrew, Phillips backed eventual Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris but also proposed a straw poll of delegates ahead of the Democratic National Convention to determine the party's top four presidential contenders, who would then take part in four town halls outlining their platforms.

"[156] HuffPost reported that after the election Phillips said of his White House bid, "I would do it a thousand times again... My only regret—and it's a big one—is that so many of my colleagues who felt exactly the same way couldn't find the courage to say and do something about it.

"[157] U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett, the first Democrat in Congress to openly call for Biden to withdraw from the election after the first presidential debate, said after Trump won, "I only regret I didn't do it earlier ...

[162] On December 30, 2024, The New York Times dubbed Phillips the "Most Prophetic" in their 2024 High School Yearbook of American Politics for challenging Biden for the Democratic nomination.

[163] On January 5, 2025, an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal argued that Phillips should be given his due "for questioning President Biden's fitness for office as early as July 2022".

[164] On January 7, 2025, a New York Times opinion piece argued that Phillips should be nominated for a Profile in Courage Award because it was left to him to "play the part of the boy who says the emperor has no clothes".

[165] On February 9, 2025, former U.S. Representative Tim Roemer wrote the Democratic Party an open letter saying, "We had an opportunity during the primary campaign (when we ignored Rep. Dean Phillips' warnings) to voice our concerns about Biden's age or to remind him that we voted for him in 2020 to defeat Donald Trump and serve one term.