Democratic presidential candidate Dean Phillips floated selecting former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley as his running mate in the final days before the Republican South Carolina Primary.
Both Phillips and Haley are challenging former presidents for their parties’ nominations ahead of the 2024 general election.
During a radio interview with WCCO host Chad Hartman, the three-term congressman from Minnesota was asked if he would vote for Haley instead of President Joe Biden.
“Wouldn’t all your listeners be more compelled by maybe Nikki Haley and Dean Phillips getting together on a unity ticket and actually doing for the first time, perhaps in our country’s history, what most Americans really want, which is cooperation, collaboration, participation, decency, common sense, leadership?” countered Phillips, per Mediaite. “So I’m gonna turn the question that way because there’s no way Nikki Haley will become the nominee in the GOP, and the fact of the matter is right now the Democratic Party doesn’t want competition and seems to want to coronate Joe Biden.”
Phillips predicted that former President Donald Trump’s victory in November is “almost certain if Joe Biden is the nominee.”
“I think any American who opposes that should celebrate, encourage, and inspire an alternative that can actually win and lead our country in the way that people want, and I think anybody, including myself, should keep open minds and hearts about that,” the congressman continued. “I hope Nikki Haley does and I think America could be very well served by some type of a bipartisan ticket that restores faith in government and most importantly demonstrates to the world, to the world, that America can work together and restore its extraordinary brand around the entire world.”
Phillips has presented himself as a moderate alternative to Biden and warned that the incumbent is far from the best option for members of the Democratic party.
“We all know it’s time for change, and change requires courage,” he said in a statement ahead of the New Hampshire primary in January.
Biden still holds a considerable lead over Phillips. According to a February Quinnipiac Poll, 80% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters plan to support the incumbent president while 15% plan to back Phillips.
So far, Trump has won each of his party’s pre-election contests in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada. Haley, who was governor of South Carolina from 2011 to 2017, vowed to stay in the race despite the outcome of the upcoming primary on Feb. 24
“If the race ended today, we would have the longest general election in history,” said Haley in a speech in Greenville on Feb. 20. “There are still eight and a half months before election day. Do we really want to spend every day from now until November watching America’s two most disliked politicians duke it out?”
She currently trails Trump in the polls by an average of 66 points, according to FiveThirtyEight.
