Dean Phillips Bio
Dean Benson Phillips (born January 20, 1969) is an American politician and businessman who served as the United States representative for Minnesota’s 3rd congressional district from 2019 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, Phillips built a career in the food and beverage industry before entering public life, eventually serving three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is widely recognized for his 2023 long-shot challenge to President Joe Biden for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination.
Before his time in Congress, Phillips served as president and chief executive officer of his family’s Phillips Distilling Company and was co-owner of brands including Talenti Gelato, Belvedere Vodka, and the Twin Cities-based coffeehouse chain Penny’s. Viewed as a moderate Democrat, he briefly co-chaired the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee and built a legislative record that emphasized bipartisanship, campaign finance reform, and ranked-choice voting.
Early Life and Background
Dean Benson Phillips was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1969, to DeeDee Cohen and Artie Pfefer. Six months after his birth, his father was killed in the Vietnam War, making Phillips a Gold Star Son. In 1972, his mother married Eddie Phillips, heir to the Phillips Distilling Company, and Eddie adopted Dean, who took the Phillips surname. He was raised Jewish and is the grandson of advice columnist Pauline Phillips, who wrote the widely read column “Dear Abby” under the pen name Abigail Van Buren.
Phillips moved with his family from Saint Paul to Edina in the early 1970s and attended The Blake School. In the summer of 1989, he interned for Senator Patrick Leahy on Capitol Hill, an experience that helped inspire his later pursuit of public service. He went on to attend Brown University, where he served as consul of the Sigma Chi fraternity’s Beta Nu chapter and graduated in 1991.
Path to US Politics
After college, Phillips worked for the bicycle equipment startup InMotion for two years before joining the family business, Phillips Distilling Company. He completed his Master of Business Administration at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management in 2000 and was soon named president and CEO of the distillery. Under his leadership, the company pioneered the organic vodka category with Prairie Organic Vodka and the flavored whiskey category with Phillips Union Whisky.
After selling Belvedere Vodka to luxury conglomerate LVMH, Phillips served as chairman of Talenti Gelato from 2012 until it was sold to Unilever in 2014. He also served on the board of Allina Health from 2005 to 2011, chairing the system from 2009 to 2011, and co-chaired the We Day organization events that encourage student volunteerism from 2013 to 2015. After years of recruitment by Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party chairman Ken Martin, Phillips entered electoral politics and won his first congressional race in 2018.
Dean Phillips Career
Early Career (2018-2019)
Phillips ran for the United States House of Representatives in Minnesota’s 3rd congressional district in 2018 as a Democrat. In the Democratic primary, he defeated former sales associate Cole Young with 81.6 percent of the vote and won all three counties in the district. In the general election, he defeated six-term Republican incumbent Erik Paulsen with 55.6 percent of the vote, becoming the first Democrat to hold the seat since 1961.
Phillips took office in 2019 and quickly established himself as a legislator willing to work across party lines. The McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University ranked him 27th out of 435 members in terms of bipartisanship during the start of his first term.
Congressional Tenure (2019-2025)
Phillips was reelected to his House seat in 2020, defeating Republican nominee Kendall Qualls with 55.6 percent of the vote, and was unopposed in his 2022 Democratic primary before defeating retired U.S. Navy submarine officer Tom Weiler with 60 percent of the vote. According to FiveThirtyEight’s congressional vote tracker, Phillips voted with President Joe Biden’s stated public policy positions 100 percent of the time, making him more liberal than average in the 117th Congress.
Phillips authored five provisions in the For the People Act, an anti-corruption and voting rights reform bill that passed the House in March 2021. His provisions included the Voter NOTICE Act to fight disinformation and the FIREWALL Act to strengthen safeguards on online advertising. He championed cannabis reform bills including the MORE Act and the SAFE Banking Act, and he sponsored the Allergen Disclosure In Non-Food Articles (ADINA) Act in 2023. In 2021, he received the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Bipartisan Legislative Action Award, and in May 2022, he received an A+ on End Citizens United’s anti-corruption and voting rights scorecard.
Phillips reintroduced the Voter Choice Act on May 17, 2024, which would provide federal matching grants to state and local governments that choose to adopt ranked-choice voting. He co-sponsored the TRUST in Congress Act, which would require lawmakers, their spouses, and dependent children to place their assets in a blind trust, and he advocated for an 18-year term limit in the House, the Senate, and the Supreme Court. In 2023, he co-led the IDEA Full Funding Act to ensure Congress fully funds the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. On December 16, 2024, Phillips delivered his farewell address on the House floor, criticizing the two major parties for prioritizing self-protection over principles.
2024 Presidential Campaign Era (2023-2024)
Phillips became the first Democratic member of Congress to publicly say President Biden should not run for reelection in July 2022, calling for generational change. In October 2023, he announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination in Concord, New Hampshire, with the slogan “Make America Affordable Again.” He argued that Biden would be a weak general-election candidate due to his age and low approval ratings, positioning himself as a younger alternative who would be a stronger opponent to Donald Trump.
Running a long-shot campaign, Phillips was rarely invited onto major television networks and accused the Democratic National Committee and liberal media outlets of obstructing his access to ballots and airtime. He received his first endorsement from New Hampshire state representative Steve Shurtleff and gained support from figures including Andrew Yang, Bill Ackman, Jason Calacanis, and Steve Schmidt. The editorial boards of the New Hampshire Union Leader, the Conway Daily Sun, and The Detroit News endorsed him.
Phillips lost the New Hampshire Democratic primary to Biden, receiving 19.9 percent of the vote, and received 2.8 percent in California before suspending his campaign on March 6, 2024, following Super Tuesday. He then endorsed Biden. Phillips finished as the runner-up for the Democratic nomination, receiving four pledged delegates and 529,486 total votes. He was later dubbed the “Most Prophetic” figure in The New York Times’ 2024 High School Yearbook of American Politics and was named a “Hero of 2024” by Mother Jones for being the only elected official to challenge Biden in the Democratic primary.
Dean Phillips Career Wins
Dean Phillips secured three consecutive general-election victories in Minnesota’s 3rd congressional district and earned a reputation as a productive legislator during his six years in the U.S. House of Representatives. He also won a position as a superdelegate to the 2024 Democratic National Convention and finished his presidential primary campaign as the runner-up to President Biden with four pledged delegates.
Congressional Highlights
Phillips won his first congressional race in 2018 by defeating six-term incumbent Republican Erik Paulsen and became the first Democrat to hold the seat in sixty years. He was reelected in 2020 against Kendall Qualls and in 2022 against Tom Weiler, building a consistent record of comfortable general-election margins. He briefly served as co-chair of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee before stepping down in October 2023.
Other Wins and Achievements
Phillips received the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Bipartisan Legislative Action Award in 2021 and earned an A+ on End Citizens United’s anti-corruption and voting rights scorecard in May 2022. The Sierra Club endorsed him for reelection in July 2022, and Planned Parenthood Action Fund endorsed him in December 2021. In 2024, he earned three delegates in the Ohio Democratic primary and one delegate in the Nebraska primary during his presidential campaign.
Dean Phillips Family
Family Background and Lineage
Phillips was born to DeeDee Cohen and Artie Pfefer, and his biological father was killed in the Vietnam War six months after his birth. In 1972, his mother married Eddie Phillips, heir to the Phillips Distilling Company, who adopted Dean. Through this marriage, he became the grandson of advice columnist Pauline Phillips, who wrote the “Dear Abby” column under the pen name Abigail Van Buren. He was raised Jewish and was acknowledged by The American Jewish World for serving on the board of Temple Israel in Minneapolis.
Personal Life
Phillips is divorced and has two adult daughters. He was married to Karin Einisman from 1995 to 2015 and later to Annalise Glick from 2019 to 2024. He is a childhood friend of Representative Kelly Morrison, a college friend of Uber Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi, and a Minnesota Vikings fan.