Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) is meeting with donors in New York next week to discuss a possible long-shot primary challenge to President Joe Biden in 2024, Politico and NBC News reported Friday.
Phillips, a moderate Democratic member of House leadership, is “highly unlikely to mount a primary challenge unless Biden’s health worsens or his political standing drops precipitously,” according to Politico’s Jonathan Martin.
The 54-year-old Minnesota congressman has been outspoken about the need for younger leadership in the Democratic Party. Last year, he said the 80-year-old incumbent shouldn’t run for reelection even though he considered him “a man of integrity, competency” who has “done an outstanding job under extraordinarily difficult circumstances.”
Biden would be 82 at the start of his second term should he win reelection. A USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll conducted last month found that 37% of Democratic and independent voters say the president’s age makes them less likely to vote for him.
“If he were 15-20 years younger it would be a no-brainer to nominate him,” Phillips told Politico in an interview earlier this year. “But considering his age it’s absurd we’re not promoting competition but trying to extinguish it.”
The odds of a serious primary challenge to a sitting president are low, but it wouldn’t be unprecedented. In 1968, Democratic Minnesota Sen. Eugene McCarthy, a critic of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Vietnam policies, nearly pulled off an upset by coming in second in the New Hampshire primary.
If he does decide to run, Phillips would face substantial intraparty opposition and likely harm Biden’s standing in a possible rematch against former President Donald Trump, who, despite all his legal troubles, continues to cruise well ahead in the race for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.