Presidential candidate Dean Phillips is protesting the North Carolina Democratic Party's decision to exclude him from the state's March primary ballot.
Phillips is a Minnesota Congressman who's one of just a few Democrats running against President Joe Biden in the 2024 primary. Democratic Party leaders in North Carolina are responsible for creating the list of presidential candidates on the ballot, and their list only includes Biden.
Phillips started a petition this week asking them to reconsider. He says the move follows similar action in Florida.
"The Democratic Party of Florida decided we do not need a presidential primary. They gave all the delegates right to Joe Biden without an election, in America," he said in a campaign video. "And then North Carolina decided the same thing — not following their bylaws, by the way — unilaterally deciding they will only submit one name to have on the ballot."
A Democratic Party spokesman says Phillips wasn't included because he hasn't campaigned or fundraised in North Carolina.
"Neither of them have been here this cycle," spokesman Tommy Mattocks told WRAL, referring to Phillips and fellow candidate Marianne Williamson. "This is the standard that we have used in all previous cycles."
But state law requires parties to submit all candidates who are "generally advocated and recognized in the news media throughout the United States or in North Carolina, unless any such candidate executes and files with the chair of the political party an affidavit stating without qualification that the candidate is not and does not intend to become a candidate for nomination."
And Phillips' petition notes that North Carolina Democrats appear to have used a different standard in 2020, when 15 Democratic presidential candidates were included on the ballot. He points out that many of those candidates were polling at a lower level of support than his campaign, which is averaging 4-7% in national polls.
Phillips says the party's bylaws and internal rules for the primary do not list any requirements about in-person campaigning or fundraising in North Carolina.
"It is beyond dispute that Representative Phillips' national recognition meets the threshold for placement on the primary ballot," the petition says.
He asks Democratic Party leaders to submit a new list of names to the State Board of Elections — and if that's not feasible, send its entire delegation to the 2024 Democratic National Convention as "uncommitted" to any candidate.
Williamson, who got 0.09% of votes in North Carolina's 2020 Democratic primary and is running again this year, was also left off the 2024 ballot here.
"This is a pattern and we cannot let it stand," she said in a tweet, referring to other states where she's been denied ballot access.
