Minnesota representative Dean Phillips (D.) said Monday he is “thinking about” taking on President Joe Biden in a presidential primary, as the 80-year-old president’s popularity is waning.

“I am thinking about it. I haven’t ruled it out,” the three-term congressman said in an interview with Steve Schmidt’s podcast The Warning. “I’m concerned that there is no alternative. I’m concerned that something could happen between now and next November that would make the Democratic Convention in Chicago an unmitigated disaster.”

The interview aired the day after the Washington Post published its latest election poll, which found Biden trailing former president Donald Trump by 10 percentage points should they face a rematch in 2024.

[Phillips would be a more serious challenger than RFK Jr inside the Democrat Party — but not by a lot. Phillips is much closer to the Dem mainstream, and as a current elected official at least has a defined constituency. However, that’s only a suburban district in Minneapolis, hardly representative of the whole party. The last time a member of the House won the presidency was 1880 (James Garfield, who was soon assassinated), and that may be the last time that a sitting House member got a major-party nomination, too. There are good reasons to be skeptical of such an effort, but the real impact of this suggestion will be to signal that mainstream Dems are looking at options other than Biden — and are willing to take on the task. — Ed]