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- Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota will not seek reelection to Congress in 2024.
- The congressman is challenging President Joe Biden for the Democratic Party's nomination.
- Phillips has echoed concerns about Biden's age throughout his campaign.
Democratic presidential candidate Dean Phillips announced Friday he will not seek reelection to Congress in 2024, saying in a statement that "after three terms it is time to pass the torch."
Phillips, a congressman representing Minnesota, has been pursuing a longshot challenge to President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination in 2024. He announced his candidacy last month. Phillips' campaign has emphasized voters' concerns about Biden's age — the president is 81 years old and would be 86 by the end of his second term, should he be reelected.
In his statement on Friday, Phillips said America is "facing a crisis of cooperation, common sense, and truth."
"Civility matters, respect matters, listening matters, and effective governance matters," he continued. "No party has a monopoly on solutions, and we must stop fighting one another and begin fighting for one another — before it is too late."
As Business Insider's John Dorman previously reported, Phillips is seeking to make inroads towards a viable electoral path in New Hampshire, given that Biden's name will not appear on the ballot. (New Hampshire violated the new DNC calendar by scheduling its Democratic presidential primary before South Carolina, and Biden opted not to file to be on the ballot). Phillips will likely face an uphill battle, however. One recent University of New Hampshire/CNN poll of likely Democratic presidential primary voters put Phillips at 10% support, compared to the 65% who said they'd write in Biden's name.
Some Democrats have also expressed irritation towards Phillips in recent weeks. Phillips was critical of Vice President Kamala Harris in a recent interview with The Atlantic, saying she was "not well prepared" to potentially seek the Oval Office in the future. The backlash was swift, and Phillips apologized.
"Apparently Dean Phillips is floundering so hard that he's now resorting to attacking Vice-President Harris. He better keep the VP's name out of his mouth and apologize," fellow Democrat, Rep. Robert Garcia, wrote on X. "No one will support him so he's going to torch his entire reputation on the way out. Sad to see."
Phillips also apologized to Sen. Bernie Sanders earlier this month for previously dismissing Sanders' complaints about a "rigged" Democratic Party primary system. Sanders told Business Insider's Bryan Metzger that Phillips appeared to have "changed his views now that he's a candidate."