Dean Phillips says his presidential campaign will last through next summer, regardless of results

Democratic U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips intends to take his long-shot presidential campaign well into next year — possibly all the way to the Democratic National Convention — even if he performs poorly in state primary elections held before then.

The Minnesota congressman who's challenging President Joe Biden said previously he would re-evaluate and possibly end his campaign in March if he didn't perform well on Super Tuesday, when more than a dozen states hold their presidential primary elections. Phillips now says he needs at least the next six months to adequately introduce himself to voters.

In a recent interview, Phillips didn't rule out staying in the race all the way until the convention in August. He said he hopes to see a poll conducted by then comparing how he would perform in a general election matchup against former President Donald Trump vs. how Biden would fare.

"I'm talking about probably six, seven months from now, mid-summer, when polls start coming out and we get close to the convention," Phillips said. "Once there's some data that indicates who's better positioned to beat Donald Trump, I will absolutely make my decision and I would ask the president to make his then, too. And I think that's the only poll that matters. Not how I'm performing in New Hampshire, not how I'm performing in the Democratic primary broadly."

Phillips believes such a poll could help him win over delegates at the Democratic National Convention.

"Let voters and the Democratic National Committee and the conventioneers decide," he said. "I promise to get behind the person who ultimately is best positioned to win, based on the data, not based on a handful of people in Washington telling us who that is."

Minnesota DFL Chair Ken Martin said Phillips' belief that he could possibly make a last-minute play at the national convention is not realistic.

"The idea that you can go into a convention and sort of win on the floor is not really possible in this modern time, based on how our rules are," said Martin, who also serves as a vice chair for the Democratic National Committee. "The vast majority of the delegates are what we call pledged delegates, meaning they're bound to the result of the election in each state."

The longer Phillips stays in the race, the more he risks hurting Biden's image ahead of a possible general election rematch with Trump, Martin said.

"He's essentially become a mouthpiece for the Republican Party," Martin said of Phillips.

T.J. Ducklo, the Biden campaign's senior adviser for communications, said "we really aren't" worried about Phillips hurting the president's image by staying in the race.

Phillips maintains that his campaign won't weaken Biden, whom he said is in an electoral situation of his own making.

"I will not say something about the president that will undermine him in a way that I think is not already perfectly clear," Phillips said.

Carleton College political science Prof. Steven Schier said it's logical for Phillips to try to make it all the way to the convention now that he's no longer running for re-election for his U.S. House seat: "He has put all his chips in this basket."

But Phillips might not garner much attention there if he doesn't fare well in earlier primaries, Schier said.

"He has to have some surprising success somewhere in the process in order to receive any attention at all at the convention," Schier said.

Phillips' first test will be in New Hampshire, which is holding its presidential primary election in January. Biden has chosen not to appear on the state's primary ballot because he strongly supports the Democratic National Committee's reshuffled order of state presidential primaries, which places South Carolina ahead of New Hampshire. New Hampshire is defying the DNC by holding its primary first.

That leaves an opening for Phillips to possibly pull off an upset, although many New Hampshire Democrats are expected to mount a write-in campaign for Biden.

Phillips said he thinks Biden's decision to not appear on New Hampshire's primary ballot could backfire.

"I think we will be quite competitive," Phillips said. "I think that will be a surprise state."