The Call is Coming from Inside the Party – Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) is considering a challenge to President Biden for the 2024 Democratic nomination, one the incumbent must take more seriously than challenges by spiritual/inspirational speaker Marianne Williamson and anti-vaxxer and famous-family outcast Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Phillips “has confirmed reports that he bis meeting with Democratic donors in New York City this week to explore a run for the White House,” MINNPOST reports. 

Phillips, 54, has relative youthfulness on his side and represents the suburbs west of Minneapolis, but his potential entrance into the primary race has upset the Democratic Party establishment. 

“It’s a distraction and it gives Republicans ammunition. Dean is going to have to explain himself,” said lobbyist Rich Ginsburg, a supporter of Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (Minnesota’s Democratic Party affiliate) candidates.

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In the Left Column -- Scroll down, using the trackbar on the far right to read ...

•Biden's other challengers: The president faces two challengers from his Democratic Party for a re-nomination in 2024, and that doesn't even account for the strong potential of a third-party challenger from the group No Labels. Does this give former President Trump the upper hand in November '24?

•As expected, the Senate passed its own version of the National Defense Authorization Act -- the defense budget -- for the coming fiscal year, just before leaving Capitol Hill for recess late last week. Can the Senate and House of Representatives reconcile their two wildly divergent bills when they return in September, with just three weeks until the new fiscal year?

In the center column: Read "Landmark Supreme Court Cases and Chief Justices of the Time" from our partners at Stacker.

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