In Laconia, Dean Phillips offers Democrats 'thoughtful alternative'

LACONIA — “I know what Americans want,” Dean Phillips quipped Wednesday night to a crowd of two dozen. “Vodka, coffee and ice cream.”

The Minnesota congressman, one of two Democrats challenging President Joe Biden in the primary, met with voters at the Belknap County Democratic Committee’s headquarters.

State Rep. Matt Coker (D–Meredith) has endorsed Phillips, and introduced him, praising his ability to connect with young adults and students.

“I tend to not get behind many candidates. My focus is my town,” Coker said. “For me to get behind somebody, I have to really believe in them.”

Phillips, 54, who was largely unknown to voters nationwide before announcing his bid in October, described himself as “so darn normal, it’s upsetting.” He is also a successful business leader: he helped expand and later ran the vodka company passed on to him by his father; managed, grew and then sold Talenti gelato; and founded several coffee shops in the Twin Cities. 

The third-term congressman framed his primary challenge as one rooted in civic duty: “Biden is going to lose,” he asserted, whether former President Donald Trump is the Republican nominee or not. “I want to be that thoughtful alternative.” Phillips ran for Congress in 2018 because, he recounted, of how distraught his two daughters were when Trump was elected in 2016. Now, he feels similarly called to prevent a second Trump victory by giving Democratic voters an alternative.

“What the public is saying is they don't want — you know this — they don't want either of these men right now,” Phillips said. “We need leadership, and I will not sit down and shush up and get back in line in the face of Donald Trump returning to the White House.”

Phillips pitches himself as more than just the Democrat willing to challenge Biden. He says he's a collaborative candidate who ideologically starts from a place many voters, Democrats and otherwise, already are.

The three issue priorities he emphasized on the stump were ensuring all Americans get health insurance, overcoming housing shortages and education. 

“There are millions of Americans who do not have any health insurance whatsoever,” he said. “We need national health insurance as fast as humanly possible.”

On the campaign trail, he continued, it has been “horrifying” to see how far outside major cities the housing crisis has spread.

Building 7 million housing units to “ensure that everyone has a home” and to put downward pressure on housing prices, he said, “should be the first and foremost priority of any president who takes the White House.”

Phillips also diverges from much of the Democratic Party on issues like immigration and the war between Israel and Hamas. 

“I also don't know why we as Democrats are so afraid of having border security,” Phillips said. “I don't know what is so unreasonable about that. We have a national security issue. It is true.”

To reform the legal immigration system, he proposed a system requiring people to apply for asylum from their home country, rather than after they reach U.S., where the federal government could provide housing and protection while applications are processed.

Doing so, he said, prevents migrants from wasting their money and compromising their safety attempting to reach American soil to request asylum.

In Gaza, Phillips said an immediate release of all hostages by Hamas should be matched by a ceasefire, withdrawal of Israeli forces and implementation of an international peacekeeping force that does not include the United States.

“Hamas is the enemy of Israel, the enemy of Palestinians. I think they’re a horrific terror organization,” that needs to be destroyed, said Phillips, who noted that he is Jewish. “And, Benjamin Netanyahu is a problem. The settlement policy is a problem. The right-wing government of Israel is a problem.” 

“I wish to be the first Jewish American president in history who signs documents that help establish the Palestinian state for the first time.”

To reform social security, Phillips proposed a fund redistribution plan where “wealthy Americans who've done very well, who do not need their Social Security, return it to a pool that would be redistributed to the people who need it the very most.”

In interviews, audience members were mostly undecided about how they will vote in the primary. They complimented Phillips’ policy decisions, but did not agree with the argument that is a main thrust of his campaign: that Democrats know deep down Biden will lose but lack the courage to be, and to back, an alternative. 

Phillips’ independent wealth, Laconia Democratic Committee Chair Eric Hoffman said, means he is freer “to take more moderate and honest positions.” Positions which, such as his assessment of the war in Gaza, were “spot on” for many Democrats.

In other ways, though, Hoffman — who as chair does not publicly support or endorse one candidate over another — said Phillips was out of step. Phillips asserted throughout his remarks that Biden’s likely failure in 2024 was the “quiet part” people are afraid to say “out loud.” Hoffman said he didn’t share that skepticism and that Biden still could mount a successful campaign on his accomplishments. 

Fellow Laconian and Democrat Steve Fay similarly said it is “too early” to claim Biden will definitely lose to Trump. If he were certain Biden would lose in November, Fay said, he would be more likely to support Phillips.

Despite not wanting Trump or Biden to be in the race, Fay said he has not yet decided who to support in the primary.

Like Hoffman, Fay spoke favorably about where Phillips landed on the issues, especially his prioritization of housing and inequality — money, Phillips said, is like manure: “You stack it up, it stinks. And if you spread it out, it fertilizes.” Also like Hoffman, Fay disagreed with Phillips’ assessment of Democrats’ current frame of mind.

Fay said he does not feel a strong push in New Hampshire or locally to “fall in line” behind Biden. Mostly, he said, he thinks his peers are apathetic about politics generally.

Meredith’s Rick DeMark said he “was in alignment with virtually everything [Phillips] said.” That is, he went on to clarify, “on the issues, I meant.”

DeMark has made no firm decisions about his vote, but he said he supports Biden and thinks he has a strong record to run on. He could change his vote, he continued, if he were “convinced that a change needs to be made.”

As of now, he said, he’s unconvinced.