All Dean Phillips Did Was Prove Democrats Are United Behind Biden
Rep. Dean Phillips has been pounding away in New Hampshire, but his only accomplishment has been to annoy voters.
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Things Have Not Gone Well For Dean Phillips In New Hampshire
The theory of the case for Rep. Dean Phillips to run for the Democratic presidential nomination was that polls showed Democratic voters were concerned about President Biden being the nominee due to his age, so Phillips thought that he might be able to use Biden’s lack of presence on the New Hampshire unofficial primary ballot to get Biden out of the race by showing that the incumbent is weak and can’t win in November.
Phillips has been relentlessly campaigning in New Hampshire. He has attacked Biden for his age and talked up the strength of Donald Trump while calling for generational change.
Dean Phillips managed to accomplish something else.
He has apparently annoyed the daylights out of New Hampshire voters.
CNN talked to a New Hampshire voter who wrote in President Biden and this was the exchange:
Q: Dean Phillips tried to take advantage of the fact that Joe Biden is not on the ballot. Did that get through to you, matter to you?
NH voter who wrote in Biden: I was unwavering. I actually found him annoying.
Video:
Needless to say, annoying is not the reaction that any candidate wants to hear from a voter.
I am a big believer that incumbents can benefit from primary challenges. I think primary challenges are good for democracy because they give voters a chance to express themselves, but Dean Phillips has spent a lot of his time attacking President Biden for his age and warning that Biden is going to lose to Trump.
Those two issues are not gateways to opening the minds of Democratic primary voters.
What does it say about the polls and the claim that Biden’s age is an issue if Phillips has so spectacularly failed?
Let’s talk about that below.
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