At Issue: Oct. 29 — Pence out, Phillips in and a new House speaker

On this week’s edition of At Issue, Tom Hauser covers Dean Phillips’ presidential campaign, Mike Pence dropping out of the race and the new speaker elected in the House of Representatives.

It’s official — Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips is now challenging fellow Democratic President Joe Biden in the 2024 race for the White House. He formally announced his candidacy Friday morning in Concord, New Hampshire before he toured the state to introduce himself to primary voters. Phillips said he knows he’s a long shot to win but hopes other Democrats get in the race to challenge President Biden.

In another shake-up for the 2024 election, former Vice President Mike Pence has dropped out of the running for the Republican presidential nomination. He ended his campaign for the White House on Saturday after struggling to raise money and gain traction in the polls.

The U.S. House of Representatives is finally back to work after electing a new speaker — Louisiana Congressman Mike Johnson — who earned the vote of every member of his party present for the session. Representative Johnson became House Speaker after Tom Emmer dropped out of the race just four hours after he was nominated.

Pro-Palestine protesters filled Congresswoman Betty McCollum’s St. Paul office earlier in the week. A group of about a dozen people waited to speak with McCollum for several hours and about 300 people gathered outside her office, urging her to call for a ceasefire and vote against President Biden’s request for military aid to Israel.

On political analysis, Andy Brehm and Jeff Hayden discuss the 2024 presidential election, Dean Phillips’ campaign and the latest updates with the new House speaker.