On the trail, Dean Phillips finds inspiration in Liz Cheney

CONCORD, N.H. — Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips brings up Donald Trump and Joe Biden a lot during his underdog presidential campaign. But another name has also become a fixture of Phillips’ campaign events in New Hampshire: Liz Cheney. 

Phillips has cited the former No. 3 House Republican at nearly every one of his campaign events in the week leading up to the New Hampshire primary. The Minnesota Democrat has elevated Cheney as an exemplar of the “principle over party” tenet — which saw her lose her congressional seat over her outspoken opposition to Trump following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot — that Phillips has used to justify his challenge against Biden on the grounds that the president is no longer up to the job.

Phillips says he was inspired by Cheney, even if it may cost him his political career.

“I literally left the House Democratic leadership table. I resigned because it was so incongruent with my principles,” Phillips said at a campaign event in Concord on Sunday. “I’d seen Liz Cheney stand up for principle, and I thought my time is right now too.”

Phillips told reporters in Manchester on Monday that he and Cheney, who lost her 2022 GOP primary to a Trump-endorsed challenger, “correspond on occasion” and that the two have been in touch since he launched his long-shot presidential bid in October.

“We’re not that politically aligned. But this is one of those areas in which the principle of preserving democracy is probably more important than anything else. And yes, we’re in touch on that, absolutely,” Phillips said.

Phillips frequently credits Cheney for calling out Trump after the Jan. 6. Capitol attack, supporting Trump’s second impeachment and helping lead the House investigation into the attack despite the political risks of such endeavors. He has stated her political sacrifice inspired him to pursue a presidential run.

“[I’m] a Democrat in front of you today who did an advertisement for Liz Cheney in her Wyoming primary, because I saw principle on display,” Phillips said in Nashua, New Hampshire, on Monday. “I don’t care what my party thinks. She is worthy of me telling the truth to the country that she is a person of principle.”

“She lost her entire career. And so have I, but for a darn good reason,” he continued.

Phillips says he has been “excommunicated” from his party for launching a primary run against President Biden and characterizing the incumbent as the weakest option to take on Trump in 2024.

“You know what happened to her for having the audacity to simply be principled and uphold her oath to our Constitution? She was excommunicated. Leadership told to leave her party,” Phillips said Sunday in Hampton, New Hampshire.

“I had the audacity to practice democracy by running for president by coming to Concord and filing a $1,000 fee to run for president. You know what that got me? Essentially excommunicated from the Democratic Party,” Phillips added.

Phillips accuses his colleagues of privately acknowledging Biden’s electoral weakness in a similar manner Cheney accused her Republican colleagues of being unwilling to make public their private concerns about Trump.

“I saw the same disease that afflicted the right, which was saying horrible things about Donald Trump quietly, and then getting in front of the cameras publicly and saying something totally different, lying to America,” Phillips said at the Concord event. “I saw my own colleagues in the Democratic caucus start doing the same thing.”

Cheney has criticized Fox News for not doing enough to debunk Donald Trump’s election conspiracies. Phillips regularly targets MSNBC for ignoring what he characterizes as the Democratic Party’s suppression of his campaign and the Democratic primary more broadly.

“I hope MSNBC is here today. And I say that because I don’t think Americans are being told the truth about what is really happening,” Phillips said. “It’s shameful. It’s wrong. It’s dangerous.”

Most of all, though, Phillips says that the thing that binds him and Cheney is their willingness to confront uncomfortable truths within their party despite the personal career cost.

“You all know I torpedoed my career in Congress,” Phillips said. “I knew I would the day I announced my candidacy. I won’t be running again. But I did so … to not torpedo this entire country,” Phillips said.