Democrat former presidential candidate Rep. Phillips laments rushed process to nominate Kamala Harris

The second-place finisher in the 2024 Democratic presidential primary, Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), regrets that his party did not follow a more democratic process to nominate Kamala Harris after Joe Biden dropped his bid for a second term last month.

"My core principle is that competition is the vitamin of democracy and that, yes, we should have run a different process from the beginning, which was simply to invite other candidates. That didn’t happen," Phillips told Breitbart News at the DNC on Monday.

'We should be enhancing competition, encouraging debate, welcoming candidates, not suppressing and not discouraging.'

Phillips also hinted to Nexstar that he feels vindicated for primarying Biden, sounding the alarm bells last fall that the 81-year-old president needed to step aside in favor of younger candidates.

"'I told you so' has never served me well, and I think we can all relate to that in our personal and professional relationships," Phillips said.

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Phillips admitted that his primary run angered many of his fellow Democrats, but he insisted that many of those relationships have since been mended.

"I’ve had a lot of wonderful reach outs and hugs and high-fives from a lot of interesting corners of the party," he told the outlet.

"Just on a very personal, human level, it feels good, kind of like being back at the popular table in the cafeteria," he shared with Nexstar.

At the DNC, Phillips expressed gratitude that Biden ultimately left the race and even suggested that Kamala Harris is the right candidate to replace Biden. Phillips just wishes the DNC delegates had gone about nominating her a different way.

"It worked out well this time, but that won’t always be the case. And we were this close, this close to what I’d call another democratic disaster, and I want to be wary of that in the future," he explained to Breitbart News.

"Generally speaking, yes, we should be enhancing competition, encouraging debate, welcoming candidates, not suppressing and not discouraging."

Though some in his party apparently had misgivings for some time about a possible second Biden term, Phillips was the only person to openly challenge the president.

Phillips' campaign, however, never gained much traction as Democrat primary voters overwhelmingly stuck by Biden. At a particularly low point in the primary process, Phillips held an outdoor coffee event in New Hampshire in January — and not a single prospective voter attended.

"Sometimes if you build it, they don’t come," he reportedly joked at the time.

In the end, Phillips dropped out of the primary in March, having garnered just five total delegates to Biden's 3,900. Even in his home state of Minnesota, Phillips ran a distant third place behind Biden and "uncommitted."

Harris did not even participate in the primary and did not earn a single primary vote. Yet, almost as soon as Biden dropped out, state delegates announced their support for her.

Still, Phillips is pleased with the results. "I think, in light of what did transpire, there’s no better outcome that we could have hoped for than the one that actually transpired," he told Breitbart News on Monday.

"I knew it’d probably cost my career, probably cost some friendships, probably cost my standing in this party — and it did. But I’m celebrating today because the objective, at least half of it, has been achieved," he added to Fox News Digital.

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