Opinion editor's note: The Star Tribune Editorial Board operates separately from the newsroom, and no news editors or reporters were involved in the endorsement process.
Minnesota's Third Congressional District, long in Republican hands, swung to a Democrat in the last election, businessman Dean Phillips. Voters liked his message of innovation, pragmatism and a commitment to working across the aisle.
Phillips, 51, has delivered on those ideals in his first term and deserves to continue his work in a second term. He is part of the House Problem Solvers Caucus, where some 50 lawmakers from both parties sit down to figure out where they can find common ground.
Their most recent work centered on breaking the impasse on COVID relief, with Phillips and South Dakota Republican Rep. Dusty Johnson laboring to craft a well-balanced framework that was larger than the Senate's "skinny stimulus" but smaller than the House's $2 trillion package.
As recently as a couple of weeks ago, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the Problem Solvers' plan could form the basis of a new White House proposal. That didn't earn Phillips any plaudits from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was still negotiating for a larger bill. Phillips earlier this month voted against that larger bill, insisting that it had no chance of passing. Instead, he pushed the more pragmatic plan that nevertheless would aid health systems, businesses, individuals and states suffering from the pandemic.
This kind of work is not easy, nor is bucking one's own leadership in the search for compromise. The Democratic and Republican moderates on the caucus are pragmatists in a severely polarized Congress. But Phillips calls it some of the most gratifying work he does.
As a Democrat, Phillips believes in the good government can do, but he also wants a government that is efficient and keeps his eye on a mounting national debt, which far too many politicians have conveniently forgotten.
He has identified a number of cost-saving measures, including negotiating prescription drug prices through Medicare, calculated to save $230 billion over 10 years, and comprehensive immigration reform, estimated to save $170 billion over that same period. An orderly withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan, he said, would save more than $440 billion.