Dean Phillips embraces Hubert Humphrey's memory in presidential run

Early in his long-shot run for president, Democratic U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips evoked one of Minnesota's most historically well-known politicians.

"I believe deeply in the Democratic Party of today," Phillips said in New Hampshire during his first speech as a presidential candidate. "For we believe in the words of my hero Hubert Humphrey that the moral test of government is how it treats those in the dawn of life, in the dusk of life and in the shadows of life."

No one can say for sure how Humphrey, who died decades ago, would feel about the controversial stand Phillips is taking within his own party.

The 54-year-old third-term congressman from a suburban district is in the midst of the unlikeliest of attempts — trying to beat Democratic President Joe Biden, 80, for the party's 2024 nomination.

Hubert "Skip" Humphrey III, the late vice president's son, said in a phone interview that he likes Philips and is "pleased that he's making reference to Dad and to his life."

But he also said Biden "is doing a pretty darn good job," before alluding to the likelihood of the Democratic incumbent facing former President Donald Trump in next year's presidential election.

"The alternative [to Biden], and it appears to be the only real alternative, is disaster Number One as far as I'm concerned," Humphrey III said.

Hubert "Buck" Humphrey, grandson of the late vice president, said in an email he thinks Phillips is "running/advocating for a majority of Americans who don't feel they have a voice in our current national politics and many Americans who don't want to vote for either President Biden and former President Trump." Humphrey's grandson explained, however, that he supports Biden.

While Phillips is embracing Humphrey's memory in his run, the underlying motives of Phillips' presidential campaign are more reminiscent of a Minnesotan who took a far different approach than Humphrey during a critical chapter in American political history.

Minnesota U.S. Sen. Eugene McCarthy managed to post a surprisingly strong result in the 1968 New Hampshire primary at a time when Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson appeared poised to become the party's nominee for president once again. Humphrey was Johnson's vice president at that time.

It wasn't until later in the year, after U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy announced a run for president and Johnson went on to not run for re-election after all, that Humphrey entered the race for president.

That part of Humphrey's political life isn't what Phillips spent much time focusing on when asked by the Star Tribune last month about the former vice president. Phillips instead talked about the stand Humphrey took at the 1948 Democratic National Convention.

"Thankfully, the Democratic Party recognized that he was right," Phillips said. "And I'm trying to make the case for the Democratic Party to recognize also this is another inflection point. I'm not saying it's as important or meaningful as Hubert Humphrey; time will tell."

That time in Humphrey's life was recently detailed by Samuel G. Freedman in his book "Into the Bright Sunshine: Young Hubert Humphrey and the Fight for Civil Rights." Freedman describes Humphrey going against Democratic President Harry Truman and other leaders in his party in giving a convention speech that helped push Democrats to make a historic commitment to civil rights in their platform.

Phillips said that Humphrey was told "you are going to ruin this extraordinary career on which you're about to embark if you make that speech and you call on the Democratic Party to get out of the shadow of states rights into the bright sunshine of human rights."

"And he wrestled with that. And despite knowing the risk, he did it," Phillips said. "And that's exactly how I felt when I made the decision to do what we're doing right now."

Phillips is facing extreme scorn from Democratic leaders over his decision to run for president.

"I don't make much of it," Maryland Democratic U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer, a former House majority leader, said about Phillips before the Minnesotan announced his run. "I think Biden's going to be our nominee. I think Biden ought to be our nominee. And I think Biden has done one hell of a job as President."