Billionaire Bill Ackman boosts Democrat Dean Phillips' presidential campaign with $1 million

Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman is giving Rep. Dean Phillips a $1 million donation to boost the Minnesota Democratic congressman's 2024 presidential primary bid against President Joe Biden. 

Ackman, who has already made the maximum individual campaign donation of $3,300 to Phillips, said he plans on donating $1 million to We Deserve Better, a political action committee supporting Phillips, on Tuesday, according to a post the financier made over the weekend on X, formerly Twitter.

"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. Federal Election Commission data shows that over the past decade, Ackman has made more than $250,000 in individual campaign contributions, most around several thousand dollars, primarily to Democratic candidates.

Ackman said Phillips would be a "truly outstanding" president and he thinks the three-term congressman "has a credible path to winning the nomination despite what the oddsmakers may think."

Phillips is currently polling at an average of 3.5% in the primaries nationwide, according to FiveThirtyEight, but Ackman said that he expects Phillips' support to rise significantly.

"Dean has gone from zero to 26% in the polls for the New Hampshire primary in a matter of weeks, and I expect him to climb further and faster from here over the next 10 days before the vote," Ackman also wrote with the first Democratic presidential primary scheduled to be held in New Hampshire next week. 

If Phillips is successful in New Hampshire, Ackman said it will "give him the name recognition he needs for the primaries that follow."

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