Dean Benson Phillips (born January 20, 1969) is an American businessman and politician who has served as the
U.S. Representative from
Minnesota's 3rd congressional district since 2019. The district encompasses the western suburbs of the
Twin Cities, such as
Bloomington,
Minnetonka,
Edina
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Services
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,
Maple Grove,
Plymouth
Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west.
Plymout ...
, and
Eden Prairie. Phillips is a member of the
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
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.
Phillips has both owned and started several companies in addition to serving as president and CEO of his family’s liquor business, the
Phillips Distilling Company. He is the former co-owner of
Talenti
Talenti is an American brand of gelato and sorbet produced by Unilever. Talenti is named after Bernardo Buontalenti, who is credited with inventing gelato.
Talenti began in 2003 as a store-front gelateria in Dallas, Texas. Founder Josh Hochsc ...
gelato and co-owns Penny's Coffee.
First elected in
2018, Phillips defeated six-term
Republican incumbent
Erik Paulsen. By flipping the once staunchly Republican district, he became the first Democrat to win the seat since
1958. He has since been reelected twice. Phillips is considered a centrist and a
moderate Democrat. Working alongside Republicans on multiple issues, he has been consistently ranked as one of the most bipartisan members of Congress. Phillips advocates for
fiscal responsibility, public safety, environmental protection, and
healthcare reform. With a net worth of $77 million in 2018, Phillips is one of the
wealthiest members of Congress.
Early life, education, and career
Phillips was born to DeeDee (Cohen) and Artie Pfefer in
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississippi River, Saint Paul is a regional business hub and the center ...
, in 1969. Artie was killed in the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
when Dean was six months old. DeeDee later married Eddie Phillips, heir to the Phillips Distilling Company and the son of advice columnist
Pauline Phillips.
In the early 1970s, Phillips moved from Saint Paul to
Edina, Minnesota. He attended
The Blake School, where he played on the hockey and baseball teams.
Phillips graduated from
Brown University in 1991 and is a member of the
Sigma Chi fraternity. He worked for bicycle equipment and apparel company InMotion for two years, and then joined his family's company's corporate office. He later completed his
Master of Business Administration
A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accou ...
at the
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...
's
Carlson School of Management in 2000. After graduation, he was named the president and CEO of his family's organization, Phillips Distilling.
Phillips served as the company's president and CEO from 2000 to 2012. He then stepped aside to run one of his other corporate investments,
Talenti
Talenti is an American brand of gelato and sorbet produced by Unilever. Talenti is named after Bernardo Buontalenti, who is credited with inventing gelato.
Talenti began in 2003 as a store-front gelateria in Dallas, Texas. Founder Josh Hochsc ...
gelato, until it was sold for an undisclosed amount to
Unilever
Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy ...
in 2014. Since 2016, he has been the founder and owner of Penny's Coffee, a coffeeshop chain with two locations in the
Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area as of 2022.
U.S. House of Representatives
Elections
2018
In 2018, Phillips ran for the
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together the ...
in as a Democrat. In the Democratic primary, he defeated former sales associate Cole Young with 81.6% of the vote. Phillips won all three counties in the district.
In the general election, Phillips defeated incumbent Republican
Erik Paulsen with 55.6% of the vote. When he took office in 2019, he became the first Democrat to hold this seat since 1961.
2020
Phillips ran for reelection in 2020. He defeated Cole Young in the Democratic primary with 90.7% of the vote
and faced off against the Republican nominee, businessman Kendall Qualls. Phillips defeated Qualls with 55.6% of the vote.
2022
Phillips was unopposed in the Democratic primary. In the general election, he defeated the Republican nominee, retired U.S. Navy submarine officer Tom Weiler, with 60% of the vote.
Tenure
According to ''
FiveThirtyEight
''FiveThirtyEight'', sometimes rendered as ''538'', is an American website that focuses on opinion poll analysis, politics, economics, and sports blogging in the United States. The website, which takes its name from the number of electors in th ...
''s congressional vote tracker at
ABC News
ABC News is the journalism, news division of the American broadcast network American Broadcasting Company, ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other progra ...
, Phillips voted with President
Joe Biden's stated
public policy
Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to solve or address relevant and real-world problems, guided by a conception and often implemented by programs. Public ...
positions 100% of the time, making him more liberal than average in the 117th Congress when predictive scoring (district partisanship and voting record) is used. During the start of his first term in 2019, the
McCourt School of Public Policy at
Georgetown University placed him 27th out of 435 members in terms of bipartisanship.
Committee assignments
*
Committee on Financial Services
**
Subcommittee on Diversity and Inclusion
**
Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
*
Committee on Foreign Affairs
**
Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations
**
Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, Civilian Security and Trade
*
House Committee on Ethics
*
Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress
Caucus memberships
*
Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus
*
New Democrat Coalition
*
Problem Solvers Caucus
The Problem Solvers Caucus is a bipartisan group in the United States House of Representatives that includes members equally divided between Democrats and Republicans, who seek to foster bipartisan cooperation on key policy issues. The group was c ...
Electoral history
Personal life
Phillips is married and has two daughters from a previous marriage. He is
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
and was acknowledged by the Minnesota publication ''The American Jewish World'' for serving on the board of
Temple Israel in Minneapolis.
Phillips's paternal grandmother
Pauline Phillips was the author of the advice column "
Dear Abby," under the pen name
Abigail Van Buren.
References
External links
Congressman Dean Phillipsofficial U.S. House website
Campaign website
*
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, Dean
1969 births
Brown University alumni
Businesspeople from Saint Paul, Minnesota
Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Minnesota
Jewish members of the United States House of Representatives
Living people
Politicians from Saint Paul, Minnesota
Carlson School of Management alumni
21st-century American Jews