Minnesota Legal Marijuana Now! is a political

third party Third party may refer to: Business * Third-party source, a supplier company not owned by the buyer or seller * Third-party beneficiary, a person who could sue on a contract, despite not being an active party * Third-party insurance, such as a veh ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

established in 1998 to oppose

drug prohibition The prohibition of drugs through sumptuary legislation or religious law is a common means of attempting to prevent the recreational use of certain intoxicating substances. An area has a prohibition of drugs when its government uses the for ...

. They are formally recognized as a minor party. Minnesota Legal Marijuana Now! became a major party in Minnesota in 2018 when their candidate for

State Auditor State auditors (also known as state comptrollers, state controllers, or state examiners, among others) are fiscal officers lodged in the executive or legislative branches of U.S. state governments who serve as external auditors, program eval ...

, Michael Ford, received 5.3 percent of the vote. During the 2010s the party began expansion attempts to other states, continuing during the 2020s, as the Legal Marijuana Now Party. They lost their major party status in a 2024 case with the Minnesota Supreme Court. In 2020, the Minnesota Legal Marijuana Now! nominee for

United States Senator The United States Senate consists of 100 members, two from each of the 50 U.S. state, states. This list includes all senators serving in the 119th United States Congress. Party affiliation Independent Senators Angus King of Maine and Berni ...

received 190,154 votes in the November 3 election, the largest number of votes received in 2020, in the U.S., by any such third-party candidate. Democrats have stated that Legal Marijuana Now! candidates are detrimental to the Democratic Party. An analysis of votes cast in the 2020 Minnesota elections found that Legal Marijuana Now! candidates might have helped Democratic candidates in swing districts, by pulling a greater number of votes from Republican candidates. Scholars have credited Legal Marijuana Now! and other Minnesota third parties with motivating the state Democratic Party to prioritize cannabis legalization in 2023.

Early History

Background before 1998

The Minnesota Grassroots Party was formed in 1986 as a response to

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

's War on Drugs. In 1996 the party split, with some former members forming the Independent Grassroots Party for one election cycle.

1998—2015

In 1998, members of the Independent Grassroots Party formed the Minnesota Legal Marijuana Now! political party. According to the Legal Marijuana Now Party, a person’s right to sell the products of their garden is protected by the

Minnesota Constitution The Constitution of the State of Minnesota was initially approved by the residents of Minnesota Territory in a special election held on October 13, 1857, and was ratified by the United States Senate on May 11, 1858, marking the admittance of Min ...

. Minnesota does not allow voters to petition to put the law itself onto the ballot for a vote. The only petition the people can use in Minnesota is to nominate independent and third party candidates for office. In 2014, Dan Vacek ran for

Minnesota Attorney General The attorney general of Minnesota is a constitutional officer in the executive branch of the U.S. state of Minnesota. Thirty individuals have held the office of Attorney General since statehood. The incumbent is Keith Ellison, a Democratic-Farme ...

as the Legal Marijuana Now candidate and got 57,604 votes, qualifying the party to be officially recognized and to receive public funding from the state. Minnesota Legal Marijuana Now! held their first convention and adopted a party constitution on November 26, 2014. Founding members Oliver Steinberg, Marty Super, and Dan Vacek comprised the organization's 2015 leadership council.

2016—2022

Minnesota Legal Marijuana Now Party in 2016 Rice Street Parade

2016—2018

The Legal Marijuana Now Party placed a candidate, Zach Phelps, on the ballot in the Minnesota State Senate District 35 Special Election, in February 2016. Minnesota Legal Marijuana Now nominated candidates by petition to appear on the ballot for the November 6, 2018, election. Their candidate for State Auditor, Michael Ford, who is African-American, received 133,913 votes or 5.28%, qualifying Minnesota Legal Marijuana Now Party to be an official major party in the state, which gave Legal Marijuana Now candidates ballot access without the task of having to petition.

2019—2020

The Legal Marijuana Now Party placed a candidate, John “Sparky” Birrenbach, of Pine City on the ballot in the Minnesota State Senate District 11 Special Election, in February 2019. In 2020, Legal Marijuana Now candidate Adam Weeks who was on the ballot in

Minnesota's 2nd congressional district Minnesota's 2nd congressional district covers the south Twin Cities metro area and contains all of Scott, Dakota, and Le Sueur counties. It also contains part of northern and eastern Rice County including the city of Northfield, as well as ...

where Democratic Representative

Angie Craig Angela Dawn Craig (born February 14, 1972) is an American politician, retired journalist, and former businesswoman. A member of the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), she has served as the U.S. representative from since 2019. The distri ...

was seeking re-election in a close race, died four weeks before the November 3 election, throwing the election into chaos because a Minnesota state law said that if a major party candidate died during an election campaign, a special election would be held. Prior to his death, Weeks had boasted in a voicemail left for an estranged friend that a Republican had offered him money to run against the Republican and Democratic candidates. Federal judges ruled that the election should go ahead because federal law setting the date of the election preempted the state law, so the name of the candidate, Paula Overby, who was nominated by Legal Marijuana Now Party to replace Weeks, was not on the ballot. State Legal Marijuana Now Party leaders encouraged their supporters to cast their votes for Weeks, in memoriam, and the dead candidate received 5.83% of votes in the three-way race. During the 2020 election campaign, Minnesota Democratic Party leaders said that the Legal Marijuana Now Party made it harder for DFL candidates to win. But a '' St. Cloud Times'' analysis of votes cast in the November 3, 2020, election found that the marijuana candidates took at least as many votes, if not more, from Republican candidates than they took from Democratic candidates. Kevin O’Connor, the Legal Marijuana Now nominee for United States Senator in 2020, secured ballot access for the party until 2024 by receiving 190,154 votes in the November 3 election, the largest number of votes received by any such third-party candidate nationwide.

2021—2022

2021 municipal elections

Legal Marijuana Now congressional candidate Mickey Moore entered the 2021 Ward 9

Minneapolis City Council The Minneapolis City Council is the Legislature, legislative branch of the city of Minneapolis in Minnesota, United States. Comprising 13 members, the council holds the authority to create and modify laws, policies, and ordinances that govern the ...

race. In the nonpartisan municipal election, Moore was endorsed by the

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

Area DFL Senior Caucus, Operation Safety Now, Minneapolis’ firefighters union. Other candidates in the race had endorsements including the Minneapolis Democratic Party, Twin Cities

Democratic Socialist Democratic socialism is a left-wing economic and political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-mana ...

s, Somali Business Association.

2022 congressional District 1 special election

Minnesota Legal Marijuana Now Party nominated Richard Reisdorf of

Mankato Mankato ( ) is a city in Blue Earth, Nicollet, and Le Sueur counties in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It is the county seat of Blue Earth County, Minnesota. The population was 44,488 at the 2020 census, making it the 21st-largest city in Mi ...

, a disabled American

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, to run for United States Representative from

Minnesota's 1st congressional district Minnesota's 1st congressional district spans southern Minnesota from the border with South Dakota to the border with Wisconsin. It is a primarily rural district built on a strong history of agriculture, though this is changing rapidly due to pop ...

in the August 9, 2022, special election.

2022 gubernatorial primary

On August 9, 2022, Minnesota Legal Marijuana Now Party held a gubernatorial primary between James McCaskel and David Sandbeck, and

Chris Wright Christopher Allen Wright (born January 15, 1965) is an American government official, engineer, and businessman serving as the 17th United States Secretary of Energy, United States secretary of energy since 2025. Before his appointment, he was th ...

and L.C. Converse. McCaskel was nominated for

Governor of Minnesota The governor of Minnesota is the head of government of the U.S. state of Minnesota, leading the state's executive branch. Forty people have been governor of Minnesota, though historically there were also three governors of Minnesota Territory ...

by 52 percent of Legal Marijuana Now voters.

2022 Minnesota state elections

In 2022, Minnesota Legal Marijuana Now Party nominated substitute teacher and former city clerk Eric Leitzen for Minnesota State Senator from District 26. In the District 54A race for Minnesota State Representative, Legal Marijuana Now Party nominated Ryan Martin, an automobile mechanic who was the party’s nominee for District 55A representative in 2020.

2022 federal elections

Paula Overby, a supporter of

Bernie Sanders Bernard Sanders (born September8, 1941) is an American politician and activist who is the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States Senate, United States senator from the state of Vermont. He is the longest-serving independ ...

who sought the DFL nomination for U.S. Senator in 2020, was nominated by Minnesota Legal Marijuana Now Party, in 2022, to run for U.S. Representative from the 2nd congressional district. Overby, an

information technology Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...

director and author of the 2017 book ''The Transgender Myth: Through the Gender Looking Glass,'' had previously been nominated by Legal Marijuana Now Party for the 2nd congressional district in 2020 after candidate Adam Weeks' death. Overby’s platform included marijuana legalization and universal Medicare. According to Representative Craig, Minnesota's 2nd congressional district is an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

stronghold. "About one-third of the voters lean Democrat, one-third lean Republican, and the other third of voters don't really like Democrats or Republicans. They like their personal rights and freedoms and don't want politicians telling them what to do," Craig said in November. On October 5, 2022, Overby died during recovery in a hospital following surgery for a heart valve condition.

Minnesota Secretary of State The secretary of state of Minnesota is a constitutional officer in the executive branch, executive branch of government of the U.S. state of Minnesota. Twenty-two individuals have held the office of secretary of state since statehood. The incumbe ...

Steve Simon Steve Simon (born December 12, 1969) is an American politician from the state of Minnesota serving as the 22nd Minnesota Secretary of State. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), he previously represented District 46B ...

stated that due to a 2021 federal court ruling in the wake of Adam Weeks' death, the congressional election would go ahead as scheduled on November 8, and Overby's name would remain on the ballot. Without remedy for replacing their deceased nominee, under state law, Legal Marijuana Now encouraged supporters to cast their votes for Overby. The party was joined in support of voting in memoriam by Right Now USA, a conservative

political action committee In the United States, a political action committee (PAC) is a tax-exempt 527 organization that pools campaign contributions from members and donates those funds to campaigns for or against candidates, ballot initiatives, or legislation. The l ...

, while the Minnesota D—F—L Party paid for advertisements against Legal Marijuana Now, in District 2. The dead candidate in 2022, Overby, won 10,728 votes in the race. In the 2022 election for United States Representative from

District 7 District 7 could refer to: *District 7, Ho Chi Minh City District 7 () is an Districts of Vietnam, urban district of Ho Chi Minh City, the largest city in Vietnam. As of 2024, the district had a population of 456,789 and an area of 36 km². ...

, Travis "Bull" Johnson, a

Beltrami, Minnesota Beltrami is a city in Polk County, Minnesota, Polk County, Minnesota, United States. It was named for Giacomo Beltrami (1779–1855), an Italian exile who traveled to the Red River and the upper Mississippi in 1823. The city was incorporated i ...

, goat farmer and

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

veteran, was endorsed by former District 7 Representative

Collin Peterson Collin Clark Peterson (born June 29, 1944) is an American accountant, politician, and lobbyist who served as the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for from 1991 to 2021. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer– ...

, a Democrat who held the office for 30 years, from 1991 to 2021. Finishing third in the election, Legal Marijuana Now candidate Johnson got 16,421 votes, placing fourth highest out of 126 contests nationally, in 2022, with third party or independent candidates in three-way races.

Since 2023

Legal Marijuana Now Party rally at Minnesota State Capitol on April 29 2023

2023—2024

2023 Minnesota Senate hearings

During testimony supporting Minnesota Senate File 73 to create a regulated commercial cannabis market, at the bill's first Minnesota Senate committee hearing, in 2023, Oliver Steinberg, a Legal Marijuana Now Party founder, said that marijuana prohibition has not stopped people from using cannabis, but prohibition has "succeeded perhaps in terrorizing or intimidating citizens, in canceling civil liberties, blighting both urban and rural communities, all without eradicating the outlawed substance." Some political scholars have remarked that Minnesota's

single-issue Single-issue politics involves political campaigning or political support based on one essential policy area or idea. Political expression One weakness of such an approach is that effective political parties are usually coalitions of faction ...

marijuana parties and strong third parties such as

Independence Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state, in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the status of ...

, which evolved from Governor

Jesse Ventura Jesse Ventura (born James George Janos; July 15, 1951) is an American politician, political commentator, actor, media personality, and retired professional wrestler. After achieving fame in the WWE, World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE), he ...

's Reform Party, motivated the state Democratic—Farmer—Labor Party to pass a marijuana legalization law, in 2023. On Saturday, April 29, 2023, after the Minnesota Senate voted to pass Senate File 73, Legal Marijuana Now Party held a rally on the state capitol steps, in celebration, featuring speakers and music by Paul Metsa and Kung Fu Hippies. Party spokesperson Dennis Schuller, who was nominated for Minnesota House of Representatives in 2020, told a ''

Star Tribune ''The Minnesota Star Tribune'', formerly the ''Minneapolis Star Tribune'', is an American daily newspaper based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As of 2023, it is Minnesota's largest newspaper and the List of newspapers in the United States, seventh- ...

'' reporter that federal prohibition laws against cannabis, overseeing implementation of the state's regulated market, and expungement of past criminal records, illustrate tasks that remain for Minnesota Legal Marijuana Now Party, planning their campaign in 2024 for United States Senate.

2024 elections

Minnesota Legal Marijuana Now! Party held a presidential nomination

primary Primary or primaries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Primary (band), from Australia * Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea * Primary Music, Israeli record label Work ...

on March 5, 2024, for the

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. The contest was held on

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alongside primaries in 14 other states and

territories A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, belonging or connected to a particular country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually a geographic area which has not been granted the powers of self-government, ...

. The race was the first Legal Marijuana Now! presidential primary, and the first third party presidential primary run by the state of Minnesota since

1916 Events Below, the events of the First World War have the "WWI" prefix. January * January 1 – The British Empire, British Royal Army Medical Corps carries out the first successful blood transfusion, using blood that has been stored ...

. Presidential delegates to the national LMNP convention were awarded proportionally by the primary results, at the state party convention held in

Caledonia Caledonia (; ) was the Latin name used by the Roman Empire to refer to the forested region in the central and western Scottish Highlands, particularly stretching through parts of what are now Lochaber, Badenoch, Strathspey, and possibly as ...

on May 8. Schuller and his running mate, California archeologist Rudy Reyes were nominated for the presidential ticket by LMNP at the national convention in Bloomington, on July 6. On May 10, 2024, the

Minnesota Supreme Court The Minnesota Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The court hears cases in the Supreme Court chamber in the Minnesota State Capitol or in the nearby Minnesota Judicial Center. History The court was first assemb ...

ruled that Legal Marijuana Now! no longer met the criteria for major party status in Minnesota. Among other things, this removed their automatic ballot access and some legal protections. Candidate filing in Minnesota began on May 21, and LMNP candidates were required to petition, by June 4, for ballot access.

Edina EDINA is a centre for digital expertise, based at the University of Edinburgh as a division of the Information Services Group. Services EDINA front and back ends, front-end services (those accessed directly by the user) are available free at ...

author Anthony Walsh, who had launched an independent LMNP campaign for U.S. Representative from CD-3 a year earlier, was rejected by Minnesota Secretary of State Simon for not having the 1,000 signatures needed, so Walsh instead ran a write-in campaign for Congress.

Electoral history

1998 election results

2014—2018 election results

2019—2022 state election results

Results in 2022 Minnesota gubernatorial election

Results in 2020—2022 federal elections

Leadership

In 2016, Michael Ford was elected chair of the Minnesota Legal Marijuana Now! Party. From 2018 through 2019, Marty Super served as chairperson. Tim Davis was chair of Minnesota Legal Marijuana Now! from 2020 until 2023, when Dennis Schuller became chairperson of the Minnesota party.

References

External links

*
facebook.com/LMN.Minnesota
{{Minnesota political parties 1998 establishments in Minnesota Cannabis law reform organizations based in the United States Cannabis in Minnesota Cannabis political parties of the United States Drug policy organizations based in the United States Political parties established in 1998 Political parties in Minnesota Progressive parties in the United States Social democratic parties in the United States