Phillips was scheduled to appear in Michigan this weekend, ahead of the Feb. 27 presidential primary, but the spokeswoman also confirmed the cancellation of all upcoming travel. He’s expected to stay in Washington, D.C., instead, she said.
The Minnesota congressman has struggled to gain any traction in fundraising or polling since his launch in late October. He lost to a write-in campaign on behalf of President Joe Biden in New Hampshire last month by a 44-point margin. And in South Carolina, his defeat was even more crushing: Biden garnered 96 percent of the vote, and Phillips failed to clear 2 percent. He was also topped by self-help author Marianne Williamson, who has since dropped out of the race.
Phillips’ presidential bid has faced other controversies. He
scrubbed “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” language from his campaign website, after he was publicly prodded to do so by his own donor. Phillips
flirted with a third-party bid, floating running on the No Labels ticket, before ultimately backtracking over the course of 48 hours.
Nonetheless, Phillips has centered his bid on Biden’s age, arguing that the 81-year-old president is vulnerable in a contest against former President Donald Trump, who is 77.
Following the special counsel’s report,
which referred to Biden as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” Phillips
took to X to describe Biden’s “physical and communicative declines I’ve witnessed over the past few years,” calling them “sad and troubling, but not unusual for an 81 year-old man.”
