Dean Phillips

Phillips was born to DeeDee (Cohen) and Artie Pfefer in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1969. His father was killed in the Vietnam War six months after Phillips was born, making him a Gold Star Son. His mother married Eddie Phillips, heir to the Phillips Distilling Company and the son of advice columnist Pauline Phillips (popularly known as Dear Abby), in 1972. Eddie adopted Dean, who took the last name Phillips. He was raised Jewish.

In the early 1970s, Phillips moved from Saint Paul to Edina. He attended The Blake School. In the summer of 1989, Phillips interned for Senator Patrick Leahy on Capitol Hill, an experience that helped inspire his own public service 30 years later. Phillips attended Brown University, where he served as consul (president) of the Sigma Chi fraternity, Beta Nu chapter. He graduated in 1991. Phillips worked for bicycle equipment startup InMotion for two years before joining his family's business Phillips Distilling Company, where he served in multiple positions in rectifying, production, sales, and marketing management. He completed his Master of Business Administration at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management in 2000, after which he was named president and CEO of the company.

After selling Belvedere Vodka to luxury conglomerate LVMH for an undisclosed sum in the mid 2000s, Phillips pioneered the organic vodka category with Prairie Organic Vodka and flavored whiskey category with Phillips Union Whisky. In 2012, he stepped aside to run one of his other corporate investments, Talenti gelato, where he served as chairman until it was sold for an undisclosed amount to Unilever in 2014. Phillips served on the board at Allina Health, one of Minnesota's largest nonprofit health care systems, from 2005 to 2011, and as chairman from 2009 to 2011. From 2013 to 2015, he co-chaired the We Day organization events that encourage student volunteerism. Phillips also chaired the board of the Phillips Family Foundation, his family's charitable work foundation.

Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party chairman Ken Martin recruited Phillips to run for Congress after trying for many years. Martin and others worked hard to get Phillips elected. He saw Phillips as a "rising star" in the party. In 2018, former Minnesota Supreme Court justice and professional football player Alan Page contributed $1,000 to Phillips's campaign against Republican U.S. representative Erik Paulsen in Minnesota's Third Congressional District. In September 2018, while on her way to the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony, actress Laura Dern asked people to vote for Phillips in his congressional race. Also in 2018, the gun safety organization Giffords, founded by former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, endorsed Phillips in the race for Minnesota's 3rd congressional district. In a statement, Giffords praised Phillips for his commitment to cut ties between Congress and special interests, particularly the gun lobby. During that campaign, Phillips drove a 1960 International Harvester milk truck emblazoned with his name and the tagline "Government Repair Truck" to 32 cities and towns across the district. He also used a pontoon boat to campaign on Lake Minnetonka.

Healthcare

On December 20, 2023, Phillips co-sponsored the Medicare for All Act. This marked a departure from his earlier position on healthcare; he said that he had previously been "convinced through propaganda that single-payer healthcare was a nonsensical leftist notion". He cited a confluence of factors that shifted his view in favor of Medicare for All, including his experience caring for his daughter who had been diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, the financial strain of providing health insurance to his employees as a business owner, and the dynamics of representing a congressional district that includes the headquarters of UnitedHealth Group as well as many people who struggle to access healthcare.

Phillips is divorced and has two adult daughters. He is Jewish, 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. He has said that Elie Wiesel's book Night has stuck with him and that he kept it on his table in Washington and at home.

Phillips is friends with actor Woody Harrelson, whom he met and befriended when Harrelson rented his house while shooting the movie Wilson. Harrelson joined Phillips on a trip to Vietnam, where Phillips's father was killed in a helicopter crash. The trip to Vietnam gained more attention during a stop in Seoul, South Korea, when Phillips ran into a group of K-Pop stars from BigBang and BLACKPINK and a popular South Korean actor, Park Bo-gum, at a recording studio. Phillips called the South Korean superstars "kind and warm".

Phillips is a childhood friend of Representative Kelly Morrison. Phillips is a college friend of Uber Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi. He is a Minnesota Vikings fan.

Term limits for Congress and the Supreme Court

Phillips has advocated for an 18-year term limit in the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the Supreme Court.