Dean Phillips expected to announce Democratic primary challenge to Biden

President Joe Biden is set to get a new challenger in the 2024 election as early as this week.

Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) is expected to announce his campaign as a Democratic challenger to Biden on Friday, sources familiar with the congressman’s plans told Fox News. His campaign will begin in New Hampshire on the last day that candidates can file for the first-in-the-nation primary.

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The three-term Minnesota Democrat is expected to hold an event on the plaza outside New Hampshire’s Statehouse in Concord before filing for the primary, the sources said. New Hampshire Secretary of State Dave Scanlan confirmed Phillips would be present at the statehouse but could not confirm that the congressman will be filing for 2024.

“He has not actually scheduled a time with my office. I know that he has scheduled some space on the front lawn of the statehouse,” Scanlan told reporters on Tuesday, adding that he thinks a challenger for Biden “would be a healthy thing for the New Hampshire primary.”

A video circulating on X, formerly Twitter, showed a bus decorated with “Dean Phillips for President” on an Ohio highway. The bus has the slogan “Make America Affordable Again” and uses Phillips’s known slogan, “Everyone’s invited!”

For months, Phillips has called on other national Democrats to primary Biden based on his age, calling out the president for “not passing the torch,” and he gradually moved toward a run himself in recent weeks.

The announcement of his campaign launch comes just one day after Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Biden’s campaign manager, confirmed that Biden would not be on the New Hampshire primary ballot for the 2024 election, citing Democratic National Committee rules. However, Chavez Rodriguez said Biden “looks forward” to having his name on New Hampshire’s general election ballot in November 2024.

Scanlan said in a statement on Wednesday that Biden’s decision to “shun the voters” is “not unexpected but still disappointing.”

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While declining to comment on Phillips’s possible entry into the Democratic primary, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday that the administration does “appreciate the congressman’s almost 100% support of this president.”

The Washington Examiner reached out to Phillips’s campaign for comment.