As Rep. Dean Phillips makes case for change, some voters have Trump and Biden fatigue

There's no excitement in Christian Malone's voice when he talks about the two leading 2024 presidential candidates.

Malone was enjoying a sunny day with his family by a fountain in Maple Grove as the country hurtled closer to a repeat of the last race between Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump.

While the 30-year-old said he wasn't a huge Trump guy, he voted for the Republican the last time around. Relaxing in the summer heat last month, Malone shared that he doesn't really trust Biden and called Trump's character "terrible."

"I don't think I would ever consider Trump again, for sure," said Malone, who lives in Coon Rapids. "And not Biden."

A lack of enthusiasm over the two major parties' leading presidential candidates is part of the argument the representative in Minnesota's suburban Third Congressional District has made over the summer while taking a lonely stand in American politics.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips broke from his party and called for Biden to "pass the torch" while sharing his fear that Democrats are "sleepwalking" into a repeat of 2016, when Trump won the White House in a stunning upset against Democrat Hillary Clinton.

"I think the Third District is very representational of a majority of the country, which is, we don't want to see Donald Trump become president, we wish there were alternatives to Joe Biden because we have concerns about him," said Phillips, who is 54.

Phillips has tried to encourage more established Democrats to enter the race against the 80-year-old Biden, and even entertained the prospect of running himself, although the likelihood of that appears to have dwindled. Author Marianne Williamson and anti-vaccine voice Robert F. Kennedy Jr. started running against Biden in the Democratic primary earlier this year, but neither long shot represents the serious alternative Phillips wants to see in the race.

After weeks of making his view clear to the nation, Phillips' words do not appear to have had a discernible impact on the likelihood of a 2020 rematch.

Despite Trump being charged in several criminal cases this year, including over the failed attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election, the 77-year-old remains the front-runner on the GOP side even as younger challengers attempt to prevent him from being the party's nominee.

As that plays out, Democratic leaders are supporting Biden, the oldest sitting president in U.S. history.

In questioning Biden's decision to run for a second term, Phillips has attempted to restart a conversation that dominated the 2020 Democratic primary race about who could defeat Trump. Even for some Minnesotans fond of Phillips, the president remains the tested option.

"Biden is the best one to beat [Trump]," said 75-year-old Democrat Linda Wold of Maple Grove, a retired family law attorney who called 2024 "a do or die election" and expressed excitement for the current president.

Yet some echo Phillips' sense of alarm. Pam Pommer, a 69-year-old Democrat in Bloomington who is an adamant supporter of the congressman, said she'd vote for Phillips if he ran against Biden in the Democratic presidential primary. But she doubts at this point that Phillips could win because of a lack of national name recognition.

"I don't think [Biden is] a strong candidate," Pommer said, conceding though that she'd vote for him in a potential rematch of the 2020 general election race.

If Biden wins the Democratic nomination next year, which seems likely, Phillips has made clear he'll support the incumbent given the deep concerns on the left about Trump potentially returning to power.

The heir to the Phillips Distilling Co. liquor fortune made it to Congress by winning a Republican seat in 2018. Phillips was re-elected in 2020 and won an even larger victory last year after the lines of the Third District were redrawn. Under both the old and new boundaries, Biden easily won the district.

Given that backdrop, Phillips' 2024 stance has put him at odds with some supporters. Anita Smithson, a 39-year-old in Bloomington involved in local Democratic politics, said making noise and asking someone else to challenge Biden is not helpful.

"I see Biden as someone who's actually been able to make some progress where we didn't really have any progress, even in the Obama administration," said Smithson, who maintained that she'll still support Phillips in a 2024 run for a fourth term in Congress.

Phillips hasn't made a final decision on whether he'll enter the presidential race, but said in a text message he's planning to run for re-election to his U.S. House seat.

While Biden's presidency has been less tumultuous than the Trump era, economic stresses have been a challenge. Allies of the president and the White House have tried to stress the impact of the president's approach as he runs for re-election.

That hasn't won over Linda Matson, a 71-year-old former Trump voter from Coon Rapids.

"I'm not happy with the way the country is," Matson said.

She couldn't say, however, whether she'd vote for Trump again.

"He did a very good job, business-wise," Matson said, while also acknowledging that the former president "divided the country."

Whether Biden can win re-election may come down to his ability to turn out reliable Democrats while also getting support from more independent-minded voters, including those who have traditionally viewed themselves as Republicans but have been discouraged by Trump's takeover of the party.

Dave Fox, a conservative who worked on Capitol Hill years ago and now lives in Eden Prairie, said he's turned off by Trump.

After voting third party in the 2016 race, Fox said he voted for Biden in 2020 and got what he expected out of the president: a decent guy who wasn't his type politically. The 60-year-old who works in marketing said it seems to him that Biden has lost a step.

"I'm depressed by the whole idea that Trump and Biden might have a rematch, and that's the best we can do," Fox said.