Dean Phillips defeated five-term Republican Rep. Erik Paulsen in a suburban Minnesota district, helping hand control of the U.S. House of Representatives to the Democrats.
People in the bev/al industry know Phillips as the former head of Phillips Distilling Co. But that’s not how he started out. His parents, DeeDee Cohen and Artie Pfefer, met at St. Paul Central High School and were married in 1967. Their son was born in January 1969.
In July 1969, when he was six months old, Artie Pfefer was killed in Vietnam. His mother was a widow at 24 and moved in with his great-grandparents. But in 1972, his mother married Edward Phillips, the son of Jay Phillips, who had built Ed. Phillips & Sons into a liquor distribution giant, and Pauline Phillips, who was better known by her pen name, Abigail Van Buren, the author of the “Dear Abby” column.
Ed Phillips “adopted me, nurtured me, and brought me into a family of great achievement and high expectations,” Dean Phillips later recalled.
Long before Mothers Against Drunk Driving had burst upon the scene, Edward had launched a national advertising campaign encouraging people to “enjoy in moderation.” Ed Phillips also started Millennium Import, which introduced Belvedere and Chopin to the U.S. market.
Dean Phillips may have had rich stepparents, but they insisted he work through high school, bussing tables at a Minneapolis restaurant, starting a mobile carwash service, and working in the print shop at his family’s distribution business.
After graduating from Brown University, Dean Phillips returned to Minneapolis, joining a start-up, then joined the family business, initially picking orders in the warehouse. Eventually he was put in charge of international sales and, while on a trip to Poland with his father and another executive, they acquired the rights to Belvedere and Chopin Vodka.
He earned his MBA on weekends from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School, and was promoted to CEO of Phillips Distilling Co. After his father died of multiple myeloma he left Phillips Distilling and joined a small business in which his father had invested building Talenti into America’s largest gelato brand and one of the best-selling ice creams in the country.
Phillips describes himself as “fiscally responsible, socially inclusive and, yes, fortunate.”
He says he “grew up in a Minnesota that placed principles above parties and the common interest above special interests. The corrupting influence of money in politics has created a dysfunctional Congress and disenfranchised millions of Americans whose voices are all but ignored in Washington. That’s why I refuse money from PACs, special interests, federal lobbyists, and even from members of Congress.”
He supports education, including fully funding federal education mandates, expand early learning activities, providing more mental health professionals and counselors in schools. He supports campaign finance reform and combatting climate change, clean water and a health planet.
His plan for fiscal responsibility includes “utilizing tax dollars more efficiently and generating more value from each dollar invested,” an “orderly military withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan, negotiating prescription drug prices through Medicaid, comprehensive immigration reform and “opposing Trump’s ineffective and unnecessary border wall.”
He supports the usual Democratic position on gun violence: universal background checks, reinstating the assault weapons ban, funding CDC research into gun violence, supporting mental health and anti-bullying programs and “common sense measures to keep guns away from dangerous people.”
On the economy, Phillips says he “understands the realities of running a business and making a payroll.” He supports “making healthcare more affordable and accessible, incentiving employee ownership of more businesses, ensure “all types of education and training after high school – including college, apprenticeships and work-based learning are available and accessible to Minnesotans of all ages.” He would also expand markets through fair trade agreements.