Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips insists he’s not necessarily running against President Joe Biden.
But Phillips will at the very least provide some competition for Biden in the Democratic primary after announcing his candidacy for the White House on Thursday.
“I’m not running against Joe Biden ... I’m running for the future,” Phillips said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” over the weekend. “Yes, we have some policy differences, but I’m a proud Democrat.”
Phillips is not a career politician, having first been the president and CEO of his family’s business, Phillips Distilling Company, which is a Minnesota-based company that produces a variety of liquors and specialty drinks.
He decided to give the political world a go when he ran for Congress in 2018, a bid that was successful after he beat incumbent Republican Erik Paulsen and become the first Democrat since 1958 to win that particular seat in Minnesota.