Wisconsin Supreme Court orders Dean Phillips added to primary ballot

The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Friday that state elections officials must include longshot presidential candidate Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) on the state’s Democratic primary ballot. 

In a unanimous decision, the court found that the bipartisan presidential selection committee in charge of approving candidates for Wisconsin’s  April 2 primary “held no discussion about Phillips” while rubber stamping President Biden’s name on the ballot during a brief January meeting. 

“The two party chairs listed the names of the candidates that their respective parties sought to have listed on the presidential preference ballot. The chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin listed only the name of Joseph Biden to be placed on the Democratic presidential preference primary ballot. Without any discussion, the Selection Committee unanimously adopted a motion to place the names submitted by the party chairs on the ballot,” the court’s opinion states.  

“The Selection Committee held no discussion about Phillips or any other Democratic presidential primary candidate. The entire meeting lasted just over five minutes.”

Wisconsin statutes require that “all candidates whose candidacy is generally advocated or recognized in the national news media throughout the United States” be placed on primary ballots.

Phillips, 55, launched his insurgent presidential campaign last October, and has made several appearances on national news programs since then.

He received just under 20% of the vote in last month’s New Hampshire primary, where Biden, whose name didn’t appear on the ballot due to a calendar dispute between the Democratic National Committee and state officials, prevailed as his supporters mounted a write-in campaign.

“We conclude that the Presidential Preference Selection Committee erroneously exercised its discretion under (state law) with respect to Phillips,” the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled, also finding that there is no evidence suggesting that it is too late to add the Minnesota Democrat’s name to primary ballots. 

At the same meeting, the selection committee also placed former President Donald Trump and five other Republican challengers, including four who have since suspended their campaigns, on the ballot.

Phillips has accused the DNC of working to obstruct the presidential primary process by changing the Democratic primary schedule, refusing to hold debates, and preventing the engagement of delegates from New Hampshire.

“I don’t know how to better articulate these efforts than, yes, a threat to democracy by undermining it and suppressing it,” Phillips told The Post last month.