Dean Benson Phillips ( Pfefer; born January 20, 1969) is an American politician, businessman, and former presidential candidate who served from 2019 to 2025 as the U.S. representative for . A member of the Democratic Party, Phillips was an executive in the food and beverage industry before entering politics. Formerly the president and CEO of his family's distilled spirits business, Phillips Distilling Company, he also was the co-owner of Talenti Gelato, Belvedere Vodka, and the Twin Cities-based coffeehouse chain Penny's.
Phillips was first elected in 2018, defeating six-term Republican incumbent Erik Paulsen. He became the first Democrat to win the seat in sixty years, and was reelected twice by comfortable margins. In November 2023, Phillips announced that he would not run for another term. Phillips was considered a moderate Democrat and briefly co-chaired the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee.
Despite consistently voting in support of President Joe Biden's policy positions, Phillips challenged him for the Democratic Party nomination in the 2024 presidential election. Running a long-shot campaign centered around providing younger leadership, he received four delegates to the 2024 Democratic National Convention, the second-most of any candidate in the primaries, making him the runner-up to Biden.
Early life, education, and career Phillips was born to DeeDee (Cohen) and Artie Pfefer in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1969. His father was killed in the Vietnam War six months after Phillips was born, making him a Gold Star Son. His mother married Eddie Phillips, heir to the Phillips Distilling Company and the son of advice columnist Pauline Phillips (popularly known as Dear Abby), in 1972. Eddie adopted Dean, who took the last name Phillips. He was raised Jewish.
In the early 1970s, Phillips moved from Saint Paul to Edina. He attended The Blake School. In the summer of 1989, Phillips interned for Senator Patrick Leahy on Capitol Hill, an experience that helped inspire his own public service 30 years later. Phillips attended Brown University, where he served as consul (president) of the Sigma Chi fraternity, Beta Nu chapter. He graduated in 1991. Phillips worked for bicycle equipment startup InMotion for two years before joining his family's business Phillips Distilling Company, where he served in multiple positions in rectifying, production, sales, and marketing management. He completed his Master of Business Administration at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management in 2000, after which he was named president and CEO of the company.
After selling Belvedere Vodka to luxury conglomerate LVMH for an undisclosed sum in the mid 2000s, Phillips pioneered the organic vodka category with Prairie Organic Vodka and flavored whiskey category with Phillips Union Whisky. In 2012, he stepped aside to run one of his other corporate investments, Talenti gelato, where he served as chairman until it was sold for an undisclosed amount to Unilever in 2014. Phillips served on the board at Allina Health, one of Minnesota's largest nonprofit health care systems, from 2005 to 2011, and as chairman from 2009 to 2011. From 2013 to 2015, he co-chaired the We Day organization events that encourage student volunteerism. Phillips also chaired the board of the Phillips Family Foundation, his family's charitable work foundation.
Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party chairman Ken Martin recruited Phillips to run for Congress after trying for many years. Martin and others worked hard to get Phillips elected. He saw Phillips as a "rising star" in the party. In 2018, former Minnesota Supreme Court justice and professional football player Alan Page contributed $1,000 to Phillips's campaign against Republican U.S. representative Erik Paulsen in Minnesota's Third Congressional District. In September 2018, while on her way to the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony, actress Laura Dern asked people to vote for Phillips in his congressional race. Also in 2018, the gun safety organization Giffords, founded by former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, endorsed Phillips in the race for Minnesota's 3rd congressional district. In a statement, Giffords praised Phillips for his commitment to cut ties between Congress and special interests, particularly the gun lobby. During that campaign, Phillips drove a 1960 International Harvester milk truck emblazoned with his name and the tagline "Government Repair Truck" to 32 cities and towns across the district. He also used a pontoon boat to campaign on Lake Minnetonka.
U.S. House of Representatives Elections
2018
In 2018, Phillips ran for the United States House of Representatives in 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 FiveThirtyEights 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. Phillips voted in favor of Biden's major economic agenda items, including the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and the CHIPS and Science Act. 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. In 2021, Phillips received the Bipartisan Policy Center's Bipartisan Legislative Action Award.
Phillips authored five provisions in the For the People Act, an anti-corruption and voting rights reform bill that passed the House in March 2021. It also included a major overhaul of campaign finance and redistricting laws. Phillips's provisions for the package included the Voter NOTICE Act, which sought to fight disinformation, and the FIREWALL Act, which sought to strengthen safeguards of online advertising.
Phillips played for the Democrats' team in the 2021 Congressional Baseball Game at Nationals Park.
Phillips has expressed pride that he is the only member of Congress to have refused all money from lobbyists, special interest groups, and Political Action Committees, and not to have his own leadership Political Action Committee.
On June 21, 2023, Phillips sponsored the Allergen Disclosure In Non-Food Articles (ADINA) Act, which would require drug labels to identify ingredients that contain, or are derived from, major food allergens or gluten-containing grains on par with labeling standards for food products.
On May 17, 2024, Phillips reintroduced the Voter Choice Act, which provides $40 million in federal matching grants, covering up to 50% of the cost for local and state governments that choose to adopt ranked-choice voting.
On December 16, 2024, Phillips delivered his farewell address on the House floor. In it, he criticized America's two major political parties for "legalized corruption" that prioritizes their own "self-protection over principles" and urged his colleagues to find commonsense solutions and focus on ideas over ideology in solving problems.
Abortion On December 16, 2021, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund endorsed Phillips for reelection. After Roe v. Wade (1973) was overturned in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022), Phillips co-sponsored bills to protect women's reproductive rights that aimed to ensure access to abortion and reproductive health care across states, including H.R. 8297: Ensuring Access to Abortion Act of 2022, as well as HR 8111: My Body, My Data Act of 2022.
Campaign finance reform On May 10, 2022, Phillips received an A+ on End Citizens United's anti-corruption and voting rights scorecard for "rejecting corporate PAC money and supporting once-in-a-generation anti-corruption and voting rights legislation".
Cannabis Phillips championed cannabis reform bills like the MORE Act and the SAFE Banking Act.
Climate action Phillips co-sponsored H.R. 2307, the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, which would put a price on carbon and return the proceeds to taxpayers, and H.R. 8395, the EPA Regulatory Authority Act of 2022, which would restore the EPA's ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. On July 11, 2022, the Sierra Club endorsed Phillips for reelection to Congress for his environmental advocacy.
Congressional stock trading ban Phillips co-sponsored the TRUST in Congress Act, which would require lawmakers, their spouses, and dependent children to place their assets in a blind trust from their first day in office until 180 days after they leave office.
Healthcare On December 20, 2023, Phillips co-sponsored the Medicare for All Act. This marked a departure from his earlier position on healthcare; he said that he had previously been "convinced through propaganda that single-payer healthcare was a nonsensical leftist notion". He cited a confluence of factors that shifted his view in favor of Medicare for All, including his experience caring for his daughter who had been diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, the financial strain of providing health insurance to his employees as a business owner, and the dynamics of representing a congressional district that includes the headquarters of UnitedHealth Group as well as many people who struggle to access healthcare.
Immigration Phillips co-sponsored the Liberian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act, giving Liberians a pathway to citizenship, which Trump signed into law.
Foreign affairs On March 5, 2022, Phillips was among the lawmakers who met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about providing additional help to Ukraine in fending off Russia's invasion. Phillips was among the U.S. delegation that attended the 2022 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Phillips supported a two-state solution in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and has criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's opposition to Palestinian statehood.
Jobs and the economy Phillips sponsored the Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act of 2020, which President Donald Trump signed into law. On September 27, 2024, he introduced the American Dream Accounts Act of 2024, which would establish in the Social Security Administration a $5,000 account for every American child to be invested in an index fund and vest upon graduation from high school, GED, or waiver for disability.
Public safety On March 5, 2020, Phillips received an endorsement from Brady: United Against Gun Violence for working across party lines to pass gun violence prevention bills. He voted to mandate background checks on every firearm sale, including sales online and at gun shows, and has said that red-flag laws "work". Phillips sponsored the Pathways to Policing Act to provide $50 million to the Department of Justice and local communities to enhance officer recruitment efforts. Another $50 million would go to the Department of Justice to create Minnesota-style Pathways to Policing programs in states across the nation.
Public education On July 10, 2023, Phillips co-led the bicameral IDEA Full Funding Act in the House of Representatives. This legislation aimed to ensure Congress fully funds the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
Term limits for Congress and the Supreme Court