Billionaire investor Bill Ackman announced on Sunday that he is planning on supporting one of President Joe Biden’s Democratic challengers, Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips.
Ackman shared his intent to donate $1 million to Phillips’ campaign on social media in a lengthy post where he said the Minnesotan would be a “truly outstanding President of the United States.”
Phillips launched his longshot campaign for the Democratic nominee last year and has since made little ground on catching the president.
However, Ackman thinks his campaign has a chance, saying he thinks Phillips has a “credible path” to the nomination.
“On Tuesday, I am wiring $1 million to wedeserve.org, a political action committee that supports Dean’s run. This is by far the largest investment I have ever made in someone running for office, and I am making this investment at a high-risk but critically important moment for his campaign,” Ackman wrote on X.
According to polling averages done by RealClearPolitics, Biden has the support of 70% of the party, followed by Marianne Williamson, a popular author, who is polling at 8%, and Phillips at 3%.
Despite this, Ackman thinks Phillips is worth hitching his wagon to, saying if he does well in New Hampshire, he has a chance of beating Biden, whose “numbers are only going to get worse as he ages.”
“As Dean rises in the polls and Biden deteriorates, the Democratic party is going to have to choose a candidate that can beat the Republican nominee. If by then, as I expect, Dean is polling substantially better than Biden against Trump, I predict that the party will choose Dean Phillips over Biden,” he wrote. “The party will have no choice.”
Biden will not appear on the state’s Democratic primary ballot, being that the Democratic National Committee is not recognizing the primary this year.
Even still, 64% of Democrats said they would vote for Biden as a write-in candidate over someone else.
While Ackman’s support for Phillips will help his campaign, it may not be enough to offer a real threat to Biden’s reelection efforts.