{"id":2088713,"date":"2023-11-03T04:22:02","date_gmt":"2023-11-03T08:22:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-and-political-allies-shrug-off-congressmans-democratic-primary-challenge\/"},"modified":"2023-11-03T04:33:11","modified_gmt":"2023-11-03T08:33:11","slug":"biden-and-political-allies-shrug-off-congressmans-democratic-primary-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-and-political-allies-shrug-off-congressmans-democratic-primary-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden and allies dismiss congressman&#8217;s primary challenge."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbiden-and-political-allies-shrug-off-congressmans-democratic-primary-challenge%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2088713&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Phillips: A Potential Challenger to Biden in 2024<\/h2>\n<blockquote>\n<p>With Rep. Dean Phillips \u2062(D-MN) in the 2024 \u2063Democratic primary race, President Joe Biden and \u2062his political team can hope the \u2063Minnesota congressman is more John\u2063 Ashbrook, less Ted Kennedy.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Phillip\u2019s center-left politics are closer to Kennedy, the 46-year Massachusetts senator and liberal icon, whose 1980 Democratic primary challenge to President Jimmy Carter\u2063 helped sink the Georgian\u2019s reelection bid. But Phillips\u2019s political standing is more like Ashbrook in 1972, as a \u200drelatively obscure House member. Ashbrook, of Ohio, challenged President Richard Nixon for the GOP nomination from the right. It proved no more than a nuisance, as Nixon claimed his party\u2019s nod without breaking a sweat and then won a 49-state landslide that November.<\/p>\n<h3>The\u2064 Kids Are Not \u2063All Right<\/h3>\n<p>Phillips, 54, jumped into the\u2063 race on Oct. \u200d27, filing for the New Hampshire primary. Phillips \u2063says he is offering himself as an alternative to Biden due to the\u2062 incumbent&#8217;s \u200bage \u2014 the president turning 81 on Nov. 20. Phillips contends his 2024 Democratic primary \u200cbid is necessary\u2062 due to the real possibility that Biden, with persistently low approval ratings in swing states, could lose a rematch against\u200d the incumbent&#8217;s vanquished 2020 rival, former President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s\u200b a \u2064different tactical approach from presidential primary \u200dchallenges over the past half-century-plus, which focused on ideological\u200b differences. For instance, in 1968, President \u200dLyndon\u200b Johnson, \u2063unpopular over his\u2063 administration\u2019s Vietnam policies, quit his reelection\u2063 bid after a narrower-than-expected\u200d 49%-42% New Hampshire primary victory over Democratic Minnesota Sen. Eugene McCarthy, an \u2063anti-war insurgent. Vice President Hubert Humphrey nabbed the Democratic nomination but came up short \u200dagainst \u2063Nixon in the general election.<\/p>\n<p>In 1976, President Gerald \u2063Ford barely fended off \u200ba Republican primary challenge from former California Gov. Ronald \u2064Reagan, who deemed the\u200d incumbent insufficiently conservative. That helped soften up Ford against Democratic nominee Jimmy Carter, a\u2063 former Georgia governor, who won a relatively \u200ctight race.<\/p>\n<p>And \u2063four years later, Carter was badly wounded by a Democratic primary challenge from Kennedy, a scion of the nation\u2019s most famous political family. Running on a platform of undiluted liberalism that culminated in his \u200b\u201cThe Dream Shall Never Die\u201d Democratic convention speech, \u200bCarter got drubbed by Reagan, \u2062who \u2063at age 69 \u2064had claimed the GOP \u200cnomination on his third try.<\/p>\n<p>A dozen years \u2063later, President George H.W. Bush faced what at\u200b least early on was \u200ca surprisingly strong GOP primary challenge from political commentator and former Nixon and\u2062 Reagan aide Pat Buchanan. Running on nationalist-populist themes that presaged Trump\u2019s \u20632016 shock \u2063win by 24 years, Buchanan\u2019s challenge split the Republican base between the establishment, embodied by the patrician Bush, and an insurgent party rump\u200c that, it turns out, would go \u2063on to wield considerable \u200bpolitical influence.<\/p>\n<p>These\u200b presidential primary precedents might \u2062all spell trouble for Biden in his 2024 reelection bid as \u2063he faces\u200d Phillips. But the president can point to the example of Nixon in\u2063 1972,\u2064 the year Biden was elected to the Senate as a \u2062Delaware Democrat at age 29, \u200das a \u200dstrong counterargument against the\u200b trend of serious\u2063 presidential primary challengers weakening incumbents.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Ashbrook, elected to the House in 1960, a dozen years later ran on the slogan \u201cNo Left Turns,\u201d reflecting frustration felt by some conservatives with \u200dNixon. The Republican incumbent, Ashbrook noted, had \u201cturned left\u201d domestically on issues like\u200d budget deficits, affirmative action,\u200b the creation of the Environmental \u2062Protection Agency,\u200b and wage and price controls. Ashbrook further slammed Nixon \u2064on international affairs for pushing\u200b detente with the Soviet Union and opening U.S. relations with the People\u2019s Republic\u2064 of \u200bChina for \u2063the first time since communists\u200d seized power in the country in 1949.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Ashbrook won 9.8% \u2063of the vote in the kickoff New Hampshire primary, with similar results in subsequent big\u200c state primaries: 9% in Florida, then 10% in California. Ashbrook quit the race after that and supported Nixon \u201cwith \u2063great reluctance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>None of \u2062it\u200c made a dent in Nixon&#8217;s \u2064chances. He won the Republican nomination easily \u200dand the general election in a \u2063520-17 Electoral College cakewalk over Democratic rival \u2064George \u2063McGovern. \u2063Though comparisons only go so far. That kind of\u2063 general election shellacking\u200b is tough to imagine in today\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/one-in-four-democrats-say-their-party-failed-to-take-advantage-of-majority-under-biden\/\" title=\"One in Four Democrats Say Their Party Failed To Take Advantage of Majority Under Biden\">narrowly divided electorate<\/a>, where presidential races are decided by a cumulative tens \u2063of \u2063thousands of votes in a \u2063handful of swing states.<\/p>\n<h3>Uphill Primary Climb For Phillips<\/h3>\n<p>The Biden reelection \u2064team\u2019s strategy is effectively to ignore Phillips, whose House voting record is nearly 100% \u2062in support of\u2062 the president&#8217;s agenda.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPresident Biden is proud of the historic, unified support \u200bhe has from across the Democratic Party for his \u200creelection,\u201d his campaign\u2064 said in a statement the day of\u2062 Phillips\u2019s announcement. \u201cThe stakes of near year\u2019s election could not\u2064 be higher\u2062 for the American people, and the campaign is hard at work mobilizing the winning coalition that President Biden can uniquely bring together once again\u200c to beat the MAGA Republicans next November.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Not that Phillips can&#8217;t\u200d potentially inflict political damage on Biden\u2019s \u200breelection campaign. \u2064Phillips\u200c is premising his \u200bcampaign around \u200dthe need for generational \u2062change, an implicit reminder about doubts over Biden, who\u200c in 2021, at age 78, \u200dbecame the oldest president ever.\u2063 Biden would\u2062 be 86 at the end \u2062of\u2064 a second term.<\/p>\n<p>Democrats got a taste of how badly such intraparty strife can sting in 2016 \u2062when Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) challenged eventual nominee\u200b Hillary \u200dClinton from the left. Sanders vocally empathized with the plight of working-class \u2064workers in the Wolverine State, which in some ways overlapped with Trump&#8217;s populist approach. Sanders in the \u2062March 8,\u2062 2016, contest beat Clinton 49.68% to 48.26%. That foreshadowed Trump&#8217;s November 47.50% to 47.27% Michigan win over Clinton, the first time the state had voted for a Republican nominee since 1988 and a\u2062 crucial victory in Trump&#8217;s triumph nationally.<\/p>\n<p>Phillips also will attempt to\u2062 resurrect the prominence of New Hampshire \u2064after Biden \u200ctried \u200cto end its reign as \u200dthe first-in-the-nation primary by pushing South Carolina to the front of the \u200bline. New Hampshire is statutorily required to hold its contest first. (No date\u2063 has been set.) \u2062If New Hampshire disobeys the Democratic National Committee, New Hampshire\u2019s delegates won\u2019t count at the party&#8217;s 2024 nominating \u200bconvention.<\/p>\n<p>And even \u200ca symbolic New \u2064Hampshire victory for Phillips may be tough since Biden&#8217;s New Hampshire allies have \u2063a write-in campaign going to notch a win for the \u200cpresident.<\/p>\n<p>Phillips \u2063came to Congress in\u200d the 2018 Democratic wave by beating a 10-year incumbent\u2064 Republican in a \u2063suburban Minneapolis \u2063House seat that had been in\u200d GOP hands for generations. Phillips\u200c was already \u2064well known in the \u2063district as\u200d a gelato entrepreneur who had successfully expanded his family&#8217;s liquor business. He is in the top 5% of wealthiest House members, with a\u200b net \u200bworth upward of $50 million, per congressional financial disclosure forms.<\/p>\n<p>Still, Biden allies \u200care keeping a close eye on Phillips since he is willing to step into the political breach where other Democrats wouldn\u2019t, with some <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-and-political-allies-shrug-off-congressmans-democratic-primary-challenge\/\" title=\"Biden and allies dismiss congressman's primary challenge.\">internal \u200cparty concerns privately rising<\/a>. Biden\u2019s approval rating is 37%, his presidential low, per a recent Gallup poll. A recent Morning Consult survey had\u200b him trailing Trump by 1 point in Pennsylvania, 2 in Wisconsin, 4 \u2062in Arizona, and 5 in Georgia.<\/p>\n<p>Publicly,\u2062 Phillips faces stiff political winds from Democratic activists \u2064and rank and file.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBiden&#8217;s already beaten Trump once. History teaches us that he&#8217;s the one guy who absolutely can beat him again. Everyone else is just a science experiment,\u201d Jim \u2063Messina,\u2062 campaign manager\u200b for Barack Obama\u2019s\u200b successful 2012 presidential reelection bid, posted on X, formerly\u2063 known as Twitter.<\/p>\n<p>Democratic state Del. Joe\u2064 Vogel, 26, of Maryland, running for the open 6th Congressional District in the Old Line State\u2019s western panhandle and\u2064 northwestern\u2064 Washington, D.C., exurbs, wrote on X, \u201cI\u2019m \u2064voting for President Joe Biden. You know I\u2019m all in for a new\u200b generation of leadership\u2063 \u2014 but \u2064I know this President has delivered for younger \u200cgenerations like few others have \u2014 and he\u2019s \u200cby far the best Democratic\u200d candidate to hold\u200c the White House in 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Prior presidential primary challengers have\u200d heard\u200c similar sentiments from party stalwarts. And by challenging Biden, Phillips \u2062may be putting his congressional career in jeopardy. He was asked to leave\u2063 a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/southern-poverty-law-center-is-racist-employees-say\/\" title=\"Southern Poverty Law Center Is Racist, Employees Say\">low-level position<\/a> in the House Democratic leadership. And he&#8217;s attracted a 2024 Democratic\u2062 primary\u200d opponent in the western Minneapolis suburbs 3rd District from Ron Harris, a DNC official.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, since \u200cPhillips \u2062isn&#8217;t running an ideologically based primary challenge against a president\u2064 of his own party but one that highlights the incumbent&#8217;s age and potential infirmities, he&#8217;s not even likely to be\u200d remembered well\u200c by party stalwarts in future years.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/phillips-a-potential-challenger-to-biden-in-2024\">CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE\u200d WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Ashbrook, who died at age 53 in 1982 amid a\u200b campaign \u2062for a Senate seat from Ohio, is still fondly recalled today by conservatives\u2064 of a certain \u2063vintage and their political heirs. The Ashbrook Center for \u2063Public\u200b Affairs at Ashland University in \u2062north-central Ohio was\u2063 named for the late congressman \u2064in \u200d1983. A periodic John M. Ashbrook Memorial Dinner\u200b at the \u200bcenter features leading conservative speakers, highlighted by President Reagan in 1983 at the \u200bcenter&#8217;s dedication, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1993, future GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney in 2010, and then-House Speaker John Boehner in\u2063 June 2011.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Unless Phillips shocks the political world and \u200dupsets Biden \u2063in the 2024 nomination fight, it&#8217;s hard to imagine\u200b a university center, tribute dinner, or really anything being devoted to\u200b him by party stalwarts. More like an asterisk in political history.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<h2> How did previous primary challenges differ from the strategic\u2064 approach used by Phillips in challenging \u200cBiden&#8217;s\u2064 age?<\/h2>\n<p><span>  Revolutionaries seized power there in\u2062 1949.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Phillips\u2019s main focus \u2064of attack is likely to be Biden\u2019s\u200c age. The Minnesota congressman argues that the president\u2019s advanced years could pose a risk in a rematch \u2062against \u200cTrump, who continues to enjoy a strong following within the Republican Party. In particular, Phillips points to Biden\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/bidenomics-why-biden-gets-poor-ratings-on-the-economy-despite-improving-numbers\/\" title=\"Bidenomics: Despite economic progress, Biden's low ratings persist.\">low\u200d approval ratings<\/a> in swing states, indicating potential vulnerability in a general election.<\/p>\n<p>This strategic approach differs\u200c from previous primary challenges, which often focused on \u2062ideological differences. For \u2064example, in 1968, President Lyndon Johnson \u200cfaced a primary challenge from\u2062 Senator Eugene McCarthy, primarily over the Vietnam War. While McCarthy&#8217;s\u2063 campaign ultimately fell short, it effectively pushed Johnson to withdraw\u200d from the race, clearing \u200bthe path for Hubert Humphrey to secure the Democratic nomination. However, Humphrey was\u200b unable to defeat \u200cRepublican nominee Richard\u200c Nixon in the general \u200delection.<\/p>\n<p>In 1976, \u200cPresident Gerald\u200b Ford experienced a primary challenge from Ronald Reagan, who criticized Ford for not \u2062being conservative enough. Although Ford won the Republican nomination, the primary challenge weakened him and\u2064 contributed to his eventual\u200b loss to Democrat Jimmy Carter. Similarly, Carter faced a significant \u2064challenge from Senator\u200b Ted Kennedy in the 1980 Democratic primary, with \u200cKennedy campaigning on a\u2064 platform of liberalism. This challenge further weakened Carter, leading to his defeat against Reagan in the general election.<\/p>\n<p>In more\u2064 recent history, President George H.W. Bush faced a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/half-of-states-now-have-constitutional-carry-laws-as-gov-kemp-signs-new-law-in-georgia\/\" title=\"Half Of States Now Have Constitutional Carry Laws As Gov. Kemp Signs New Law In Georgia\">strong primary challenge<\/a> from Pat Buchanan in 1992. Buchanan&#8217;s nationalist-populist\u2063 campaign highlighted divisions within the Republican Party and foreshadowed Donald Trump&#8217;s successful run for president in 2016. \u200cWhile Bush ultimately secured the nomination, his presidency was weakened by \u200dthe primary challenge and he lost to Democrat Bill Clinton in the general \u200belection.<\/p>\n<p>These historical precedents \u200dsuggest that primary challenges can pose significant challenges\u2063 to incumbent presidents. In the\u200c case of Biden and Phillips, the focus on age\u200d as\u2064 a potential weakness could resonate with voters concerned about the president&#8217;s ability to \u200clead effectively. However,\u200b Biden can find inspiration in the example \u2063of\u200c Richard Nixon, who faced a relatively insignificant primary challenge from \u2064John Ashbrook in 1972. Despite Ashbrook&#8217;s attempts to portray Nixon as too liberal, the incumbent president easily secured the nomination and went \u2062on to win in a landslide victory.<\/p>\n<p>As the 2024 Democratic\u2063 primary \u2064race unfolds, \u200cit remains to be seen whether Phillips can capture enough support to pose a meaningful challenge to Biden. \u2063Nevertheless, his focus on age as a potential vulnerability highlights the unique\u200b dynamics of the upcoming election. Ultimately, voters will have the final\u200d say in determining the fate of these potential challengers and the future direction of the Democratic \u2064Party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) joins the 2024 Democratic primary race, offering President Joe Biden and his team a potential candidate resembling John Ashbrook rather than Ted Kennedy. Phillips&#8217; center-left politics align more closely with Kennedy, the renowned liberal senator from Massachusetts, whose 1980 primary challenge against President Jimmy Carter ultimately contributed to his downfall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2088714,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2088713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2088713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2088713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2088713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2088714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2088713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2088713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2088713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}