Minnesota has two political parties with a focus on legalizing cannabis, but after this last election cycle, one of them will no longer be considered a “major party.” According to a Star Tribune report, the Grassroots-Legalize Cannabis Party lost its major party status following Election Day.
The party failed to have a statewide candidate net 5% of the vote over the past two elections, which is required to maintain its major party status. The party had candidates for governor and state auditor this year, though both received less than 2% of the total vote—Steve Patterson was running for governor, while Will Finn ran for auditor.
According to the party website, the Grassroots-Legalize Cannabis party is dedicated to personal freedom, justice and peace.
“We uphold the Bill of Rights and work to repeal drug prohibition, restore civil liberties and environmental balance, and ensure equality through the political process,” the site reads. “The primary purpose of the Grassroots Party is the total legalization of cannabis and the pardon and release of all prisoners held on so-called “marijuana” charges.”
Legal Marijuana Now is Minnesota’s other pro-cannabis party and still holds its major party status, as U.S. Senate candidate Kevin O’Connor received nearly 6% of the vote in 2020. This allows the party to maintain the designation for four years. That party also failed to meet the 5% threshold this year, so it will need to secure at least 5% of the vote in 2024 to remain a major party moving forward.
Grassroots-Legalize Cannabis Party Chairman Oliver Steinberg implied that the loss isn’t necessarily a bad thing, telling the Tribune that the major party designation is the “worst thing that happened to cannabis parties.” Steinberg explained that the designation opened the party up to “bogus,” GOP-aligned candidates who could run under the party’s name.
Steinberg, and other party representatives, have yet to further elaborate, with the party’s most recent update posted on the party site October 29 referencing that the party has generally been absent from social media.
In the update, beginning with the header, “… established in 1986, sabotaged in 2022,” Steinberg writes that despite the small size and limited resources of the Grassroots-Legalize Cannabis Party, the party was the “target of political dirty tricks from all directions, by people who wanted to destroy us, to hijack our candidates’ places on the ballot, and basically turn us into political road-kill.”
Steinberg continues, “The people of Minnesota deserve to hear the truth. This web site, which has been inaccessible to the active party leadership for most of the year, will be brought up to date as quickly as our limited resources and volunteers will allow.”
According to the update, the party met on August 9, 2022, and voted to repudiate the “impostor candidates” who made it onto the ballot through the Primary Election. Ultimately, the party urged residents not to vote for Patterson or Matt Huff, who ran for lieutenant governor, since they weren’t actually affiliated with the party.
“Patterson stated that his intention was to hijack the party’s nomination,” Steinberg writes. “He has no background as a cannabis activist, has never supported or donated to the party, and refused an opportunity to let the Party’s endorsed candidate—a disabled military veteran—obtain a place on the ballot.”
A statement posted by the party in August said its endorsed candidate, Kevin “NeSe” Shores was kept off the ballot, saying that Patterson and Huff chose to “pervert the political process” to pursue their “personal grudges and egotistical ambitions.”
“The Grassroots-Legalize Cannabis Party repudiates these two unpatriotic opportunists,” the statement closes. “Although their names will appear on the Nov. 8th ballot on the Grassroots Party line, a vote for the hijackers, Patterson and Huff, would betray the party’s principles and hurt the cause of cannabis liberation.”
