Former presidential candidate Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) believes the Democratic Party needs a “comprehensive turnaround” after decisive losses in last month’s elections.
Phillips had launched a primary challenge against President Joe Biden over concerns about his electability due to his age, and the outgoing congressman was critical of party leadership for sticking with the president. Phillips was handily beaten by Biden, who would later drop out of the presidential race and endorse his vice president, Kamala Harris, but she was later defeated in the general election by President-elect Donald Trump.
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The Minnesota Democrat, in an interview with Politico, blasted his party as “rudderless” after Democrats lost the White House and the Senate, and failed to take back the House of Representatives.
“This party needs a comprehensive turnaround, and conventional wisdom no longer works. A party that consists of multiple silos and campaign committees and outside groups cannot strategically do its job, and that means leadership,” Phillips said.
“Right now, we are totally devoid of leadership. We are rudderless,” he added. “I don’t know which Democratic Party member my colleagues would point to as the leader, de facto leader, and absent that, I don’t see much, frankly, happening.”
He also said that Democrats should engage with groups the party has “turned our back on” as it searches for answers and standard bearers.
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Regarding his longshot presidential bid and calls for Biden to step down that eventually were echoed, Phillips took little solace, saying he expected the “comprehensive” rejection of his candidacy by the Democratic Party.
“If what I feel now is vindication, it’s awfully unsatisfying. I felt vindicated the day I announced my campaign, because I knew this was not an opinion. This was a fact,” Phillips told the outlet. “The fact was, he was not in a position to win. The fact was his approval numbers were historically low. The fact was his physical decline was real. And the only vindication I cared about was my own, and I’m saddened that I’m vindicated.”
“I would have much rather traded that vindication for success, and that’s why I’m so utterly disappointed in many of my colleagues and our party,” he added.
After his failed primary challenge to Biden, Phillips did not seek another term in his House seat and will leave the chamber when the new Congress is sworn in later this week.
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When asked if he had any regrets, Phillips said he wishes he were “able to generate a platform to really wake people up to this nightmare into which we sleepwalked.”
Harris lost all seven swing states and the popular vote to Trump after rising to the top of the Democratic ticket following Biden’s disastrous June debate performance against Trump.