Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., is launching a bid for the Oval Office Friday, a longshot move that some of his colleagues deemed a vanity project and other top Democrats privately describe as a mid-life crisis, Politico reports. His new candidacy, though not likely to present much of a genuine challenge to incumbent President Joe Biden, also represents the undercurrent of discontent with the current president among Democratic voters.
In private conversations, the millionaire businessman has emphasized that voters need an alternative to the 80-year-old president. A half-dozen sources who have spoken directly to Phillips told Politico that while he has described feeling a sort of obligation to Biden, he has also voiced concern about the president's ability to defeat former President Donald Trump in the upcoming presidential election. The Minnesota Democrat is "seeing a problem that everyone sees, but no one is talking about," one of the sources told the outlet, describing Phillips as "frustrated" by it all.
