Minnesota Democratic Congressman Dean Philips has been saying for months that US President Joe Biden should not run for re-election. Claiming his age (now 80 and 82 at the start of a hypothetical second term) and low popularity, he encouraged others to come forward and challenge him. Now the 54-year-old Phillips has decided to take the step himself, as he has been hinting at in recent weeks. The congressman has registered his candidacy for the November 5, 2024 presidential primary.
Phillips is in his third term in the House of Representatives for a district that includes part of the outskirts of the city of Minneapolis. He was first elected in 2018 when Democrats took numerous seats from Republicans in Donald Trump’s midterm House elections. His chances against the tenant of the White House are slim because of the projection that the presidency gives to whoever holds the office, because of the funding amassed by Biden’s campaign, the support of the party apparatus and because Phillips himself is little known to the large audience.
All in all, his candidacy is virtually the only serious alternative in the Democratic primary race. The most popular candidate was Robert F. Kennedy Jr., son of the former senator of the same name who was assassinated in 1968. Kennedy decided to leave the Democratic Party and run directly for president as an independent. He has no chance, but it is not clear what impact this alternative candidacy could have on the loss of votes for the Democratic candidate or perhaps the Republican candidate, given the anti-vaccination postulates and hoaxes of all kinds that he has promoted.
In addition to Phillips, Marianne Williamson, a 71-year-old author of self-help books who tried unsuccessfully in 2020, and the left-wing political commentator of Turkish origin Cenk Uygur, 53, born in Istanbul, are also running in the Democratic primaries. and who emigrated to the United States at the age of eight. Uygur can run in the primaries, but does not even meet the constitutional requirement of being born on American soil to become president. The presence of Williamson and Uygur in the primaries is nothing more than anecdote.
It remains to be seen whether Phillips is too. Phillips, a millionaire heir to the family business and a businessman himself, entered the race so late that he was unable To his candidacy in time for the primary in Nevada, the second state to vote on the Democratic calendar in 2024, where the Registration deadline has expired.
“I think President Biden has done a spectacular job for our country. But it’s not about the past. “These are elections about the future,” Phillips said in an interview with CBS this Thursday. “I will not remain silent or silent in the face of numbers that say so clearly that we will face a state of emergency next November,” citing the polls and the possibility that former President Donald Trump will be elected to a second term becomes.
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Biden’s low popularity
The new candidate is trying to take advantage of Biden’s low popularity, which fell in October to its lowest level since he took office in January 2021. The approval rating has fallen four points in a month to 37%, the lowest point it reached last April, according to data from Gallup, a leading pollster on the subject. What has now dented Biden’s popularity is the withdrawal of support from Democratic voters after they gave unified support to Israel in its response in Gaza following the Hamas attack on October 7.
Democratic voter approval has risen from 86% to 75% in a month, a record 11-point drop in the month of conflict in the Middle East. The survey fieldwork was conducted between October 2nd and 23rd.
In the immediate aftermath of the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, Biden pledged “solid and unwavering” U.S. support for Israel and subsequently visited the country on Oct. 18 to reinforce that message. But Biden has been criticized by some members of his party for siding too much with Israel and not doing enough for the Palestinians. Gallup’s own poll earlier this year found that Democrats’ sympathies for the Palestinians exceeded their sympathies for the Israelis for the first time.
“Although the poll is not designed to provide statistically reliable estimates for any portion of the three-week election period, the daily results clearly indicate that Democrats’ approval of Biden has increased following the October 7 Hamas attacks and Biden’s pledge support for Israel fell sharply on the same day,” Gallup said in a statement. Biden’s current approval rating of 75% among Democrats is well below his own party’s average of 86% throughout his presidency.
Support for the Palestinian cause is particularly strong among young people, one of the Democrats’ strongest electoral niches. Voter attrition among them could pose a serious problem for Biden in the 2024 presidential election, in which Donald Trump leads the Republican primary by a wide margin and emerges as his likely rival. In the case of the new candidate Phillips, a Jew who has vigorously defended the United States’ support for Israel, this aspect does not give him an advantage over Biden.
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