It’s going to be a strange year. A difficult year. A tricky year. But it will end well.
TrendMacro conversation with Representative Dean Phillips, the renegade Democrat running against Biden in the presidential primaries
Monday, February 5, 2024
He's in it to win it, all the way to convention -- he thinks there's a good chance he'll be the last man standing.
Update to Strategic View
Phillips says he's running against Joe Biden because "America is ready for a new generation of leaders." But it's also because he's afraid Biden can't beat Donald Trump in November, and sees himself as an insurance policy against another Trump presidency. Phillips' own party is suppressing his candidacy by keeping him off the ballot or cancelling primaries altogether, which he says is as anti-democratic as the January 6 Capitol riot. He believes he will perform well in states like New Hampshire where there are open political processes, and poorly in machine-controlled states like South Carolina. He intends to stay in the race till the end, going all the way to the convention. He believes that Biden is in serious decline, and may well not make it all the way to the election, putting him in the position of a credible alternative when better-known politicians like Newsom have eliminated themselves. He fears the No Labels third party will draw votes disproportionately from Biden, but as a member of the House Problem Solvers Caucus and an advocate of bipartisanship, he would consider a place on their "Unity Ticket." Many of his platform policies are traditional Democratic welfare-state ideas. But he styles himself a "pro-growth Democrat" and says he would welcome businessmen and entrepreneurs into his administration.