Democrat Rep. Dean Phillips laments after voters no-show outdoor NH event: ‘Sometimes if you build it, they don’t come’
Minnesota Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips looked miserable Tuesday when no voters showed up to his outdoor coffee hour in New Hampshire’s largest city to hear why he’s running against President Biden.
Phillips, who polls show to be Biden’s most serious rival in the Jan. 23 Democratic primary, was pictured sitting alone with a box of Dunkin’ coffee on the bumper of his Government Repair Truck outside the DoubleTree hotel in Manchester.
As he realized that nobody was coming — exactly two weeks before voting day — Phillips told the assembled journalists that “sometimes if you build it, they don’t come,” CBS News reporter Jake Rosen posted on X.
Phillips spokeswoman Katie Dolan told The Post that with temperatures in the low 20s, it was simply too cold to hold an event outside and added that a smattering of people did show up when the congressman moved indoors.
“We met with voters this AM — just indoors instead of outdoors,” Dolan said, providing The Post with a photo of the congressman with 14 people, some of whom did not appear to be of voting age.
Adding insult to injury, however, was the fact that the Phillips event was intended to draw a built-in on-site audience from the New England College Convention 2024 that was happening at the hotel.
The convention brings young people “from across the country” into contact with the presidential primary experience and features “visits from presidential candidates and campaign staff, members of the media and political experts,” according to an Eventbrite registration page.
Phillips, 54, launched his long-shot campaign in late October, arguing that Biden, 81, is too old and will lose his re-election bid to former President Donald Trump.
New Hampshire initially looked like it could be Phillips’ moment to shine — as Biden technically isn’t going to be on the ballot due to his unsuccessful effort to strip the Granite State of its primacy in favor of South Carolina, where voters revived Biden’s 2020 campaign.
Biden is still running a write-in campaign in New Hampshire and national Democrats are stumping to raise awareness of that fact to avoid an upset for the president, who came in fifth in the state’s 2020 primary with just 8.4% support.
Other write-in candidates include “Tiger King” star Joe Exotic, the self-identified “gay gun-toting redneck with a mullet,” who is campaigning from prison to “Make America Exotic Again” as he appeals a 21-year sentence for a murder-for-hire plot and animal abuse.
There are 20 candidates in addition to Phillips on the primary ballot, including spiritual adviser and self-help author Marianne Williamson and satirist Vermin Supreme, who campaigns on the message that all politicians are rats so voters should support the biggest one.
Biden has maintained a huge lead in New Hampshire polling, with Phillips and Williamson generally drawing single-digit support, though recent polls have gauged Phillips with as much as 21% backing.
