PORTSMOUTH, N.H. – Rep. Dean Phillips says he plans to “under promise” and “overdeliver” as he runs a long-shot primary challenge against President Biden for the Democratic nomination.
Phillips, one of the wealthiest members of Congress, launched his campaign for the White House in late October. He’s focusing most of his time and resources on New Hampshire, where the president’s name won’t be on the ballot in the state’s unsanctioned Democratic primary on Jan. 23.
“Do I have to win? No. Absolutely not. Do I think I’m going to? No, I don’t. I bet you’ve never heard that from a politician before,” Phillips answered when asked by Fox News Digital where he needed to finish in the New Hampshire primary to continue his presidential quest.
Phillips acknowledged, “I’m a long shot, a dark horse, and that‘s fun. That’s fine. Because I feel what’s happening in the country and what’s happening right here.”
Top Democrats in New Hampshire launched a write-in campaign for Biden in order to prevent any electoral embarrassment in the state’s presidential primary. Support for the write-in effort was heavily on display Friday night at the state Democratic Party’s annual fundraising gala, which Phillips also attended.
Speaker after speaker encouraged those attending the function, many who were wearing “write-in Joe Biden” stickers, to do just that.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who headlined the event, topped his speech by saying “there’s an important primary next month.” He then held up a pen to hammer home his point that voters should write in the president’s name on the ballot.
Asked about the reception he received at the dinner, Phillips told Fox News, “I got a lot of cold shoulders.”
And pointing to the move last week by the Florida Democratic Party to keep Phillips – as well as best-selling author and spiritual adviser Marianne Williamson, who is making her second straight White House run – off their presidential primary ballot, he charged, “What we’re seeing in Florida, what we’ve seen in the past from the GOP, is disenfranchising, it’s causing division and anger and I think risk to the country that we have to solve fast.”
Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in New Hampshire.
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