Dean Phillips

Dean Benson Phillips (born January 20, 1969) is an American businessman and politician who has served as the U.S. representative from Minnesota's 3rd congressional district since 2019. Phillips's district encompasses the western suburbs of the Twin Cities, such as Bloomington, Minnetonka, Edina, Maple Grove, Plymouth, and Eden Prairie. A member of the Democratic Party, Phillips has both owned and started several companies in addition to serving as president and CEO of his family’s liquor business, the Phillips Distilling Company. He is the former co-owner of Talenti gelato and co-owns Penny's Coffee.

First elected in 2018, Phillips defeated six-term Republican incumbent Erik Paulsen. By flipping the once staunchly Republican district, he became the first Democrat to win the seat since 1958. He has since been reelected twice. Phillips is considered a centrist and a moderate Democrat. With a net worth of $77 million in 2018, Phillips is one of the wealthiest members of Congress. In 2023, he announced his intent to challenge incumbent President Joe Biden for the Democratic Party's nomination in the 2024 presidential election.

Phillips was born to DeeDee (Cohen) and Artie Pfefer in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1969. Artie was killed in the Vietnam War when Phillips was six months old. DeeDee later married Eddie Phillips, heir to the Phillips Distilling Company and the son of advice columnist Pauline Phillips.

In the early 1970s, Phillips moved from Saint Paul to Edina. He attended The Blake School.

Phillips graduated from Brown University in 1991 and is a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. He worked for bicycle equipment and apparel company InMotion for two years, and then joined his family's company's corporate office. He later completed his Master of Business Administration at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management in 2000. After graduation, he was named the president and CEO of his family's organization, Phillips Distilling Company.

Phillips served as the company's president and CEO from 2000 to 2012. He then stepped aside to run one of his other corporate investments, Talenti gelato, until it was sold for an undisclosed amount to Unilever in 2014. Since 2016, he has been the founder and owner of Penny's Coffee, a coffeeshop chain with two locations in the Twin Cities metropolitan area as of 2022.

Elections

2018

In 2018, Phillips ran for the United States House of Representatives in Minnesota's 3rd congressional district as a Democrat. In the Democratic primary, he defeated former sales associate Cole Young with 81.6% of the vote. Phillips won all three counties in the district.

In the general election, Phillips defeated incumbent Republican Erik Paulsen with 55.6% of the vote. When he took office in 2019, he became the first Democrat to hold this seat since 1961.

2020

Phillips ran for reelection in 2020. He defeated Cole Young in the Democratic primary with 90.7% of the vote and faced off against the Republican nominee, businessman Kendall Qualls. Phillips defeated Qualls with 55.6% of the vote.

2022

Phillips was unopposed in the Democratic primary. In the general election, he defeated the Republican nominee, retired U.S. Navy submarine officer Tom Weiler, with 60% of the vote.

Tenure

According to FiveThirtyEight's congressional vote tracker at ABC News, Phillips voted with President Joe Biden's stated public policy positions 100% of the time, making him more liberal than average in the 117th Congress when predictive scoring (district partisanship and voting record) is used. During the start of his first term in 2019, the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University placed him 27th out of 435 members in terms of bipartisanship.

Committee assignments

For the 118th Congress:

• Committee on Foreign Affairs
  • Subcommittee on the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia (Ranking Member)
• Committee on Small Business
  • Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax and Capital Access
  • Subcommittee on Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Workforce Development

Caucus memberships

• Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus
• New Democrat Coalition
• Problem Solvers Caucus

In July 2023, Phillips said he was considering challenging President Joe Biden in the 2024 Democratic presidential primaries. In October 2023, he announced that he would step down as co-chair of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee because his views on the 2024 presidential race were incongruent with the majority of his caucus. He plans to announce on October 27 in Concord, New Hampshire, whether he will run for president. He officially filed the paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on October 26.

Phillips is married and has two daughters from a previous marriage. He is Jewish and was acknowledged by the Minnesota publication The American Jewish World for serving on the board of Temple Israel in Minneapolis.

Phillips's paternal step-grandmother Pauline Phillips was the author of the advice column "Dear Abby," under the pen name Abigail Van Buren.