EXCLUSIVE: Joe Biden’s Dem challenger Dean Phillips received maximum campaign donation from GOP megadonor Harlan Crow, known for lavishing expensive gifts to Justice Clarence Thomas

Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips received financial support in his bid for Congress from Harlan Crow — the same controversial Republican megadonor who showered Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas with expensive gifts.

DailyMail.com can reveal that Crow gave the maximum contribution of $2,800 to Phillips’ congressional campaign in 2019, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Phillips, the three-term moderate Democrat from a suburb of Minneapolis, will declare his campaign for president against Joe Biden in Concord on Friday, New Hampshire, after resigning earlier this month from the Democratic Leadership of the House of Representatives.

Even leading up to his announcement, he faced criticism from some in his own party who fear he could weaken Biden by siphoning Democratic votes and diverting his attention from the general election, likely against Trump.

The Crow contribution will inevitably add to the fodder, with insiders already reporting Phillips’ decision to accept support from a Republican influencer known for his mischievous donations to third-party candidate Cornel West’s presidential campaign, giving Clarence Thomas and his wife Ginni expensive gifts, and for collecting Nazi artifacts, including a signed copy of Hitler’s Mein Kampf.

“I can’t say I’m shocked that the multimillionaire gelato maker representing a lily-white district in Minnesota would have no problem accepting maximum donations from the guy who collects Nazi memorabilia and funds the social life of insurgent Ginni Thomas.” , a Democratic strategist with ties to the Biden world told DailyMail.com. “God bless this man in South Carolina.”

West, a progressive activist, came under scrutiny last week when it was revealed that Crow gave him the maximum contribution of $3,300 in August, viewing the then-Green Party candidate as a potential left-wing spoiler.

West, who is now running as an independent candidate, backed away from the pressure and returned the donation. He targeted the pro-Israel community when he explained his reluctant decision on Friday.

“How sad that perceptions in our decadent culture so quickly triumph over the truth,” the professor wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “This also applies to our great catastrophe in the Middle East, where the rich humanity of the Palestinians is being made invisible. It also applies to the little scandal over Harlan Crow’s donation to my campaign.

“He is a staunch anti-Trump Republican who has ‘Never Forget’ collections of tyrants (Stalin, Mao, Hitler and many others) and patriotic collections of Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln,” West continued. “Does this disqualify him from contributing to my campaign? Most people say yes, I say no. As a jazzman, I listened and decided to give the money back to brother Harlan – but still tell the truth!’

Reports indicate the Texas billionaire also gave gifts to Republican presidential candidates Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley and Chris Christie, and met with representatives from those campaigns at a donor conference in Dallas earlier this month.

Crow has also contributed to certain Democrats who have blocked much of Biden’s agenda, including Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.

Phillips will announce his campaign Friday at the State House Plaza, an event that coincides with the deadline to file for a presidential run in the state.

The 54-year-old previously worked in corporate marketing and branding. His grandmother was Pauline Esther Phillips, better known as the advice columnist Dear Abby.

Fellow Democrats in Washington and New Hampshire have already expressed disdain for his candidacy.

“New Hampshire voters are not going to cut off their noses to spite their faces,” Terry Shumaker, a former ambassador and veteran of multiple Democratic presidential campaigns in New Hampshire, recently told Politico “New Hampshire Democrats and Independents recognize that Biden has done a great deed’ really good work.

‘Phillips can try (to exploit the calendar), but he should have started six months ago. Frankly, I think it’s too late.’

Last month, Phillips teased a campaign on campaign strategist Steve Schmidt’s The Warning podcast, saying, “I’m afraid there’s no alternative.

“I’m afraid that something could happen between now and November of next year that would make the Democratic Convention in Chicago an unmitigated disaster,” he added.

Biden has yet to face a serious challenge from his own party, despite his age, concerns among Democrats about his recent blunders and voters who say they would like an alternative.

Biden is currently facing Democratic challenges from self-help author Marianne Williamson.

Environmental attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had run as a Democratic candidate, but announced earlier this month that he would now run as an independent.

Neither poses a major challenge at the polls, even as voters say they want another choice.

Polls show voters are concerned about Biden’s age. At 80, he is the oldest president in American history. If he were to win a second term, he would be 86 when this one is over.

A Wall Street Journal poll this summer found that 75 percent of voters think Biden is too old to run for a second term, including as many as two-thirds of Democrats.

Biden jokes about his age. He has also argued that this means he has the experience to do the job.

‘A lot of people seem focused on my age. Believe me, I know it better than anyone,” he said recently at a fundraiser in New York. ‘When this country was flat on its back, I knew what I had to do.

“I am more optimistic about the future of this country than I have been in the 800 years I have served,” he added with a laugh.