A standing-room-only crowd was on hand to hear Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota speak Wednesday night at Post & Beam Brewing in Peterborough.

Phillips, who is challenging President Joe Biden for the Republican nomination, first visited the Monadnock region on Dec. 4, when he spoke at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge. Ellen Avery of Peterborough said that while she is a fan of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who dropped out of the Republican primary earlier this month, she was curious to learn more about Phillips.

“I just like his spunk,” she said. “I’d like to see Nikki Haley, too.”

Sally Shonk of Peterborough said she came because she read that Phillips was voted the second-most bipartisan member of Congress. 

“I like that, and I wanted to see what he had to say,” she said. 

Phillips expressed his appreciation for the people and political climate of New Hampshire. 

“This has been the most-joyful month of my life,” Phillips said. “In New Hampshire, you have this amazing culture built around democracy. I’ve attended house parties where the day before, they hosted a Republican candidate. I think New Hampshire is the best practitioner of democracy in the country, and I know that our country is much less divided than the media would like to believe we are. From my experience, meeting people in this state and hearing their concerns, people want the same things.” 

Phillips, a three-term member of Congress who flipped a longtime Republican district in the Minneapolis-St. Paul suburbs, took aim at both national parties, and expressed his disillusionment with the way the U.S. government functions. 

“When I got into Congress, I thought I would get the chance to get to know my Republican colleagues, to work together with them and learn the ropes and try to solve problems together. Instead, we’re kept apart at every opportunity,” he said. “The parties in power want to keep things the way they are.” 

Phillips took aim at the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) stance on the New Hampshire primary, noting that the state’s attorney general recently sent a cease-and-desist letter to the DNC. The DNC no longer sanctions the New Hampshire primary as the first in the nation, which it has been since 1920. According to state law, New Hampshire is required to hold the first primary in the nation. 

“They literally called our primary here in New Hampshire ‘meaningless.’ In Florida and in North Carolina, the DNC just stated that Biden won, they didn’t even hold the primaries. The party won’t allow any Democratic challengers on those ballot. That’s actually voter suppression. It’s taking away the choice of the voters in those states,”  Phillips said. 

Phillips advocated for ending gerrymandering and for ranked-choice voting, which is currently used in Alaska, Maine and cities that include Minneapolis, New York and San Francisco. In ranked-choice voting, voters choose candidates in order of preference. If one candidate gets more than 50%, he or she wins. If not, the candidate who drew the fewest votes is eliminated, and his or her votes are allocated to those voters’ second choices. The process continues until a candidate has a majority.

“The two ruling parties are ruining politics in this country. I’ve seen equal hypocrisy on both sides in my time in Congress,” Phillips said. “I’ve seen many of my Republican colleagues say privately that they can’t stand (former President Donald) Trump. Then in public , they stand right up and say they endorse Trump. It’s the same with the Democrats. Privately, some of them express concerns about Biden. Publicly, they say they’re behind him 100%.”

Phillips described attending an event sponsored by Braver Angels, an organization that brings people from opposite political viewpoints together for discussion. 

“I attended a dinner recently where there was a guy with an F-150 truck and a Trump sticker, and a young woman in a Prius with climate change stickers, and at the end of this event, they stood up and hugged. They were able to find common ground. They realized we are not as divided as we are lead to believe,” Phillips said. 

Heidi Copeland of Peterborough asked Phillips how he would fund his proposals to provide affordable  health care, lower  prescription drug costs, provide affordable child care and forgive student loans. Phillips, an entrepreneur and former CEO of his family’s business, Phillips Distilling, said corporations and the wealthy needed to pay their fair share. 

“We are spending more on the past, servicing our national debt, than on the future,” Phillips said. “The interest on the national debt is now as much as the entire budget of the U.S. military.”

When asked about what he would do about the situation in Gaza, Phillips, who is Jewish, said the current situation was the greatest horror he had ever seen. Phillips has stated that Hamas needs to be eliminated. 

“My great-grandparents escaped pogroms. I am a man of the Jewish faith,” Phillips said. “And when I am president – our first Jewish president – I would sign legislation into law granting statehood to the Palestinian people.”