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Rep. Dean Phillips — who is somehow still running for president, despite having zero chance at winning the Democratic nomination, let alone effecting any sort of ideological shift within his party — has expressed interest in another path to relevancy in the 2024 election: as Nikki Haley’s running mate.
In an interview Thursday with a Minneapolis news station, the Minnesota congressman first floated the idea of a unity ticket with Haley and himself. WCCO host Chad Hartman then asked if Phillips would be interested in being Haley’s vice presidential pick if she were to run as an independent.
“I think it’s a conversation that Ambassador Haley and I should have, if that’s what this comes down to,” he said of the former ambassador to the United Nations.
Anyone interested in an alternative “that can actually win” against Donald Trump “should keep open minds and hearts about that,” Phillips added. “I hope Nikki Haley does, and I think America could be very well served by some type of a bipartisan ticket that restores faith in government and, most importantly, demonstrates to the world — to the world — that America can work together and restore its extraordinary brand around the entire world.”
But Phillips’ own presidential bid has baffled observers. As my MSNBC colleague Zeeshan Aleem wrote last month, the Minnesotan’s argument that there needs to be an alternative to Biden is sound, but “Phillips has failed to make the case for why he would be more electable — and what the point of electing him would be.”
Phillips has been trounced in each of the first three Democratic primaries. Yet he has vowed to stay in the race, telling Politico that he wants to wait to increase his name recognition so that pollsters can test a Trump-Phillips matchup before he decides whether to drop out.