U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips delivered his a final speech on the floor of the House of Representatives Wednesday, wrapping up a career that spanned his election to the U.S. House in 2018 and his challenge to President Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination earlier this year.
Phillips, a Democrat from Plymouth, announced his run against Biden in Concord, N.H., in October of 2023 after other higher profile Democrats declined to enter the primary.
“It is time for the torch to be passed to a new generation of American leaders,” Phillips said at the time. His bid was considered a long-shot and he ultimately dropped out after Super Tuesday, endorsing Biden.
He made an issue of Biden’s age in his campaign. The issue became more pronounced after Biden’s debate in June with former President Donald Trump. Vice President Kamela Harris ended up running after Biden dropped out of the race in July. Harris, with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running matte, lost the election to Trump in November.
Also in November, Democrat Kelly Morrison, a state senator, won the seat Phillips is vacating.
Phillip’s birth father Artie Pfefer died while serving in the Vietnam War. Last year Phillips took a trip to Vietnam to visit the area where a helicopter crash that took his father’s life.
Here are his last remarks to Congress as prepared:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Today I bid farewell to my amazing staff and colleagues and constituents on both sides of the aisle, and the myriad of unsung heroes to whom our entire nation owes a debt of gratitude. I thank you from the TOP of my heart.
And to my amazing family that has stood by me in times of both great joy and pain. My amazing mother, DeeDee, my late father, Eddie, my brothers Tyler, Jay, and Bobby, and my sisters Hutton and Lily. And to my treasured daughters, Daniela and Pia, who compelled me to run for Congress back in 2018 – I love you with all my heart.
I depart this august institution with a combination of deep gratitude – a little bit of attitude – and a healthy dose of optimism! And to those who are pleased to see this affable but outspoken gadfly ride off into the sunset, I’m sorry to say that my mission to restore common sense and a home for the exhausted majority of center right & center left Americans – is JUST beginning.
It is a mission whose roots weren’t planted here in Washington, or back home in Minnesota, rather 8,000 miles away on Dragon Mountain in Pleiku, Vietnam, where my father, Capt. Artie Pfefer, was killed fighting a war in which he did not believe, but for a COUNTRY in which he believed very deeply.
Last year, I traveled to the very ground on which he took his last breath, and it changed me forever. He died just four days after the Apollo 11 moon landing, and I’ve often pictured him and a half a million other young soldiers looking up in awe that morning – many probably in tears – as two fellow Americans achieved the unthinkable.
They got a glimpse of America at her very best up there – while we were at our very worst down here. And I picture our predecessors in this very room voting to fund both that giant leap for mankind AND that giant tragedy for mankind – all in the same year.
On my flight home from Vietnam – I reflected on my dad and the ONE MILLION other Americans (one million!) who’ve been killed in service to our country since 1776. And I thought… They did not sacrifice their lives for members of Congress to act like kindergartners.
They didn’t sacrifice their lives for members of Congress to spend 10,000 hours a week begging for campaign dollars used to eviscerate fellow Americans running for office. They didn’t sacrifice their lives for Congress to do nothing as 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.
They didn’t sacrifice their lives for Congress to do nothing as 500,000 Americans go bankrupt from MEDICAL DEBT each year – and twenty-SIX million go without any health coverage at all. They didn’t sacrifice their lives for Congress to do nothing as 50,000 Americans die from gun violence and another 100,000 from overdoses EVERY SINGLE YEAR. They didn’t sacrifice their lives for Congress to do nothing as wealthy industries shower millions of campaign dollars on the very committee members who set the rules for their industries…and then allow each party to collect “dues” from those committee members to fund campaigns.
It’s legalized corruption! And it’s unacceptable. My father and one million other Americans didn’t sacrifice their lives for Congress to enable two private corporations, the two major parties, to maintain a virtual monopoly on our democracy. And having paid the ultimate price themselves, they SURELY didn’t sacrifice their lives for members of Congress to prioritize their own self-protection over their principles. However, they DID sacrifice their lives because of decisions made in this very room by people JUST like us. So as I bid farewell, I humbly ask all members of the next Congress to call on your better angels and act with COURAGE – not cowardice.
The courage to compete with our IDEAS rather than defeat one another with our IDEOLOGIES. The courage to fix OUR PROBLEMS rather than fixATE on our politics. The courage to replace condemnation with INVITATION, and the courage to replace confrontation with common sense. In closing, I believe we all have a choice to make. Will we be a nation that metaphorically goes to the moon TOGETHER, or one that goes to war against one another? As a free people, that choice remains ours – ALL of ours.
As Albert Einstein, a notable immigrant to America, famously said: “The world is a dangerous place – NOT because of those who do evil – but because of those who look on and do NOTHING.” I believe in us. I love you all. And I’ll see you down the road. Godspeed.
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