The Legal Marijuana NOW! Party of Minnesota nominated Dennis Schuller and Rudy Reyes as its presidential ticket at its national convention over the weekend. Both candidates previously ran in the party’s earlier presidential primary.
According to a press release published by the Legal Marijuana NOW! Party of Minnesota following the convention, delegates met in Bloomington, Minnesota, on Saturday to select the party’s presidential ticket. Convention delegates from both Minnesota and Nebraska participated, nominating Minnesota party chair Dennis Schuller as the presidential nominee and selecting Rudy Reyes as its vice-presidential nominee. Reyes, who is introduced as the Legal Marijuana NOW! Party’s national chair in the release, was initially chosen by Schuller as his running mate in May.
The release further states that 30 delegates participated in the nomination process, with Schuller narrowly winning on the first ballot over independent candidate Dr. Cornel West. Schuller received 40% of the vote to West’s 33%, with the remainder not disclosed. In a second round of voting, Schuller won outright with 55% of the total vote. Of the 30 delegates who participated, 20 were from Minnesota, and the remaining 10 were from Nebraska.
Both Schuller and Reyes participated in the Legal Marijuana NOW! Party of Minnesota’s presidential primary in March. Although Krystal Gabel won with over 750 votes, she stated that she did not consent to appear on the ballot going into the primary. Excluding total write-in votes, Schuller was the immediate next choice with 459 votes, with Reyes coming in fourth behind Vermin Supreme.
It’s worth noting that the Legal Marijuana NOW! Party of Minnesota no longer has automatic ballot access due to the Minnesota Supreme Court ruling in May that the party is not a qualified major party. The decision came after the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota petitioned the court, arguing that the Legal Marijuana NOW! Party failed to meet the required organizational criteria. However, the party can still petition on behalf of the ticket.
The party is also fielding a congressional candidate in Minnesota alongside its presidential ticket. Anthony Walsh, a youth hockey coach and author, will run for an open seat in Minnesota’s third congressional district later this year. Democratic Congressman Dean Phillips currently holds the seat but announced his plans to retire earlier in the election cycle as part of his then-presidential run.
The Nebraska Party has nothing to do with the Minnesota Party although the Minnesota Party claims them.
The Nebraska Party just wants the Minnesota Party to leave them alone and to quit listing them on all their websites and blogs. The Nebraska Party also asks the MN Party to quit running their activists against their desires.
Any idea on when the full results will be released?
On a related note, I’ve since learned through Ballot Access News that the Nebraska state party nominated Cornel West late last month. Seeing that the Minnesota party claims Nebraska delegates were in attendance and Reyes is also the chair of the national organization, I’m curious to find out if this creates internal problems or if there is something amicable between the two parties.