The Internet Comes Together to Mock Dean Phillips’s Dumb Map
Representative Dean Phillips thought he’d made a pretty good point Wednesday about the political division in the United States, but the internet was quick to show him just how badly he’d messed up.
Phillips is running a long-shot campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination against President Biden. If you’re wondering how that’s going for him, Phillips won just 19.6 percent of votes during New Hampshire’s unofficial Democratic primary on Tuesday. Biden won 55.8 percent—as a write-in candidate.
Following his New Hampshire loss, Phillips revealed Wednesday morning on Fox & Friends that he had attended one of Donald Trump’s rallies to try to connect with far-right voters. When his actions prompted backlash, Phillips spoke out against political divisions.
The Democrats condemning my friendly visits with Trump supporters outside his rally are the same people coronating Joe Biden and questioning why America is so red.
— Dean Phillips (@deanbphillips) January 24, 2024
That’s why we need a candidate who leads with invitation, not condemnation, of fellow Americans. ???????? pic.twitter.com/GldmTZ6hPt
Phillips accompanied his tweet with what appeared to be an electoral map, which was indeed primarily red. But internet users were quick to point out that the map was massively misleading for two main reasons.
First, while the map makes it look like most people vote Republican, the areas that are blue actually have higher population numbers.
Population matters. Empty land doesn't get a vote. pic.twitter.com/p8f3KN8cS3
— Happy Fun Time (@FunTime87682) January 24, 2024
We’re reached the “owning the libs by suggesting cornfields vote” part of the Phillips campaign https://t.co/oe0WGofAGV
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 24, 2024
Second, the map isn’t even from the most recent election.
This is not the 2020 election map — note the red coloring on Maricopa County, AZ, plus Morris County, NJ, before they both switched to Dem in 2020. I think this might be the map from 2016 (when the Dem nominee *still* won more actual votes from Americans). https://t.co/cdOuDjtJ04
— Eric Kleefeld (@EricKleefeld) January 24, 2024
According to this map Joe Biden didn’t win Phoenix, Jacksonville, Grand Rapids, Dayton, & several scattered rural counties in the upper Midwest.
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) January 24, 2024
Joe Biden did, in fact, win Phoenix, Jacksonville, Grand Rapids, Dayton etc
Maps are an important part of running a campaign. https://t.co/AeKuKS7UQK
“There was probably a lane for someone to do reasonably well against Biden,” tweeted Osita Nwanevu, a columnist for The Guardian and contributing editor for The New Republic, “but being maximally annoying to every constituency in the Democratic Party at once wasn’t it, obviously.”