No-hoper threatening to snatch Joe Biden spotlight

After a dispute with officials in New Hampshire over scheduling, the president will not be on the ballot when the state’s primary kicks off.

Dean Phillips brings coffee to a Joe Biden write-in rally in Manchester at the weekend. Picture: AFP

: President Joe Biden faces the prospect of an embarrassing setback this week if a no-hope challenger for the Democrat presidential nomination upsets the odds in the New Hampshire primary.

The Democratic National Committee has attempted to turn more than a century of tradition on its head by insisting that South Carolina, rather than New Hampshire, holds the party’s first primary of the election year.

Mr Biden demanded that the Democratic Party reorganise its primary calendar to “move forward states that better reflect US demographics”.

South Carolina has a large black population, whereas New Hampshire’s is whiter.

However, New Hampshire officials have ignored their party bosses in Washington by continuing with the vote on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT), which means Mr Biden’s name will not appear on the ballot. A rearguard campaign is trying to persuade party members to write Mr Biden’s name on ballot papers.

Dean Phillips, 55, a businessman and congressman from Minnesota, has no chance of winning the Democrat nomination, but his topping the ballot in New Hampshire or even coming a strong second would cause the President deep embarrassment.

Mr Phillips stands at 28 per cent in the most recent New Hampshire poll, 30 points behind Mr Biden, but two weeks ago he was on 6 per cent and held a rally to which nobody turned up.

He is now drawing full houses at as many as three events a day. He said his growing popularity was “a reflection of what is possible when someone is willing to walk through the snow and meet voters and answer their questions, and debate, and practise the beautiful art of democracy”.

He added: “I would argue that President Biden has not fulfilled his core obligation to practise democracy.”

At an event at the University of New Hampshire last week, several dozen people came to hear why he thinks his experience in business would make him a good commander-in-chief and how he wants to disrupt the status quo.

He also attempted to tap into their anger about being overlooked by the national party. “You know what the Democratic National Committee did to all of you,” he told an audience of several dozen at an event in Manchester on Thursday. “It is repulsive, it is suppressive. I think it is downright unconstitutional and certainly anti-democratic. So what better outcome can you give this country on January 23 than to demonstrate to the Democratic National Committee and frankly both parties that who’s still got the power? You do.”

The Times