He was a Democratic Party delegate from New York in 2004. In February 2009, Phillips was appointed as a member to the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board to provide President Barack Obama and his administration with advice and counsel in addressing the late-2000s recession. In 2017 he was a lead organizer of a new political action committee (PAC), which became the Black Economic Alliance in 2018; the PAC aims to help elect representatives who will vigorously push an economic agenda for African Americans, and Phillips is on its board of directors.