The DNC knows that if Joe Biden is subjected to an actual primary season, he could well fail. So, what will the DNC do now that Minnesota Democrat Dean Phillips is throwing his proverbial hat in the ring?

Now, we have already seen what the DNC decided to do with a much higher-profile candidate like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. RFK Jr. was attempting to create a Democrat primary race, but after all the stonewalling by the DNC, he chose to launch a third-party run as an independent. Dean Phillips, on the other hand, isn’t going to try that. What he apparently wanted was an open conversation about Joe Biden’s ability to be president. With too many Democrats realizing that their fates are tied to Biden, even with an impeachment inquiry and Hunter looming quite nearby, the DNC chickened out. It’s Joe or nothing. Dean Phillips is apparently not willing to toe that party line.

Kind of telling that Twitter/X promptly suspended Phillips’s presidential campaign account immediately, and then had to reinstate it, isn’t it? His Congressional campaign Twitter/X account is still active, and it has been converted over to a presidential campaign header and message, even though the new account is back.

I am running for President as a Democrat in 2024.

My campaign will be about four main things.

First and foremost, it will be about the economy. We have to make life more affordable for the middle class, which is the issue that voters care about most. We need to bring down the… https://t.co/dNyRtITHzq

— Dean Phillips (@deanbphillips) October 27, 2023

The tweet/post is long, but lays out Phillips’s reasons for running.

My campaign will be about four main things.

First and foremost, it will be about the economy. We have to make life more affordable for the middle class, which is the issue that voters care about most. We need to bring down the cost of living and make life affordable again.

As part of making life more affordable, we have to celebrate success. America should be the most prosperous country in the world, and we need to be both pro-business and pro-worker to get there.

Second, it will be about safety. If people don’t feel safe in their communities, not much else matters. We have a drug crisis and a mental health crisis in this country; it’s taking a horrible toll on individual as well as their communities. We have to address it.

Third, my campaign will be about the generational change the country wants and policies that invest in our future, our young people.

And finally, it will be about listening to each other to get back to a less divisive political environment. There’s government reform that will help with this too—we need term limits, campaign finance reform, and things like bipartisan cabinets.

It’s obvious that Dean Phillips is trying to stake out the moderate lane, but then he gets into the real reason – he’s afraid that Biden is going to get his clock cleaned by Donald Trump.

I promised my daughters when Trump won in 2016 that I’d stand up and do something about it, so I ran for Congress and am now on my third term.

I didn’t set out to enter this race. But it looks like on our current course, the Democrats will lose and Trump will be our President again. President Biden is a good man and someone I tremendously respect. I understand why other Democrats don’t want to run against him, and why we are here. This is a last-minute campaign, but desperate times call for desperate measures, and courage is an important value to me.

If President Biden is the Democratic nominee, we face an unacceptable risk of Trump being back in the White House. I know this campaign is a long shot, but that is why I think it is important and worth doing.

As I’ve been listening to voters the past few weeks, I’ve been really heartened by the support, and believe we can win both this primary and general election.

People know in their hearts that it’s time for a change. We can do this together. Everyone’s Invited!

Obviously, Democrats don’t want to hear that Biden could lose the 2024 election, so they are acting completely stunned that anyone would dare challenge “the Big Guy.”

A moderate Minnesota Democrat, Phillips has been a beloved member of the Democratic Caucus and was seen as a rising star on Capitol Hill. Less than a year ago, his colleagues elected him to the leadership team as one of the co-chairs of House Democrats’ policy and communications operation. He recently resigned from that post after calling for a primary challenger to run against Biden, arguing that the president is too old for another term (Phillips is 54).

His personal affability and popularity in the caucus is a big reason why few are willing to talk on the record about Phillip’s quixotic White House bid against the incumbent president. Privately, however, they can’t make any sense of it, suggesting it will be a political dead end for Phillips.

“It’s a head-scratcher,” a second House Democrat said Friday, a sentiment echoed by many others in the party since Phillips first started flirting with a bid over the summer. “He is a great member, a good strategic thinker. I don’t know what he hopes to achieve.”

A third House Democrat said he has racked his brain trying to come up with an explanation for Phillips’ seemingly last-minute, haphazard presidential bid.

“He’s well-liked in caucus and I can’t understand what he is hoping to accomplish here. I’m not just saying it as a rhetorical statement: I really don’t understand what the point is,” the third lawmaker said in a phone interview Friday. “I don’t know if he’s hoping to come out in favor of a certain cause, elevate an issue that’s not receiving attention or whether he has some other goal, but I haven’t heard it clearly articulated.”

“So I’m concerned, in the absence of that type of articulation, it appears as though he is doing it in a way that could possibly harm Biden’s standing,” the lawmaker continued.

Dean has offered an explanation – the Democrats just don’t LIKE it. However, don’t expect Republicans to flock to Phillips either – not when he’s hiring Steve Schmidt – yes, the Lincoln Project’s Steve Schmidt – to help his campaign.

Steve Schmidt, a top campaign strategist to Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, is working with Phillips, which several Democrats called a “red flag.” In 2020, Schmidt also advised former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, another wealthy businessperson who considered an Independent presidential run. In addition, Phillips has brought on Ondine Fortune as a media buyer, while a firm led by Bill Fletcher, a Tennessee-based ad-maker, obtained permits for Phillips’ Friday event. Several staffers from Phillips’ congressional campaign are also filling out the early operation.

Dean Phillips is entering this race late, and has already missed the deadline to file in Nevada for their primary, so he is going to file in New Hampshire and focus there.

Dean Phillips signed the New Hampshire State House guestbook just under Donald Trump. Trump wrote “I love New Hampshire” and Phillips wrote “So Do I”. He joined candidates over the decade who filed for the New Hampshire presidential primary pic.twitter.com/T2jqU9nAal

— Glen Stubbe (@gspphoto) October 27, 2023

Can Phillips win the Democrat nomination? Not unless Biden becomes incapacitated (which is not exactly an out-of-left-field prediction, but then watch Gavin Newsom come in like a wrecking ball for the nomination), but he could make him bleed a bit by being a mosquito in Biden’s saggy backside. I expect Team Biden, with the aiding and abetting of the DNC, will simply ignore Dean Phillips and act like he doesn’t exist. The problem is, if Phillips puts in the leg work in New Hampshire, and Biden campaigns from the basement again, this could put some real hurt on the Biden campaign. These early primaries aren’t necessarily about winning – it’s about momentum. Biden’s poll numbers are pathetic. If Phillips shows up while Biden lounges on the beach, the imagery alone could spell even more doom for the Biden campaign and the DNC.

Even if the DNC doesn’t want to admit it, Dean Phillips just threw a monkey wrench into their party machinery. This could get very interesting.

Featured image: Representative Dean Phillips (D-MN), official Congressional portrait, cropped, public domain