Dean Phillips ends his long shot primary bid against Joe Biden
The Minnesota lawmaker argued that voters wanted a younger candidate.
Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips is ending his long shot challenge to President Joe Biden in the Democratic primary, having failed to win traction among voters with his message that the party needs a younger nominee.
"I'm going to suspend my campaign, and I will be right now endorsing President Biden. The choices are so clear ... we only have two of them, and it's going to be Donald Trump or Joe Biden," Phillips said on Wednesday afternoon in a radio interview.
The decision comes after Biden won the congressman's home state of Minnesota on Super Tuesday as well as the elimination of his staff ahead of the Michigan primary late last month, a state Phillips hoped to do well in but ultimately ended with less than 3%.
The lawmaker, who gave up his position in House leadership and said in the fall that he wouldn't seek another term, didn't receive significant amount of ballots in any of the states voting so far for the Democratic nominee.
He said on Wednesday that he listened to his head and heart, calling his campaign, "like any endeavor, a difficult one."
"It will expose the greatest joys you've ever experienced and probably the greatest pain, and it will surprise nobody when I say that this one has done both," he said.
"While indeed, I think the president is at a stage in life where his capacities are diminished, he is still a man of competency and decency and integrity. And the alternative, Donald Trump, is a very dangerous, dangerous man," Phillips said. (Biden has repeatedly pushed back on concerns about his fitness.)
Though Phillips had said he was motivated to run by his belief that former President Trump would win in a rematch against Biden, someone he once called a "nonviable candidate," on Wednesday he walked back those sentiments -- heavily complimenting Biden in his departure.
Moving forward, Phillips said he plans to do whatever it takes to help the president.
"I invite and encourage [Nikki] Haley supporters, Trump supporters, 'uncommitted' supporters, to unify behind decency and integrity at a time where it is so consequential to our families, for our children and to our future," he said.
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