Grassroots-Legalize Cannabis Party


The Grassroots-Legalize Cannabis Party is a political third party in the U.S. state of Minnesota created in 1986 to oppose drug prohibition. The party shares many of the progressive values of the Farmer-Labor Party but with an emphasis on cannabis/hemp legalization issues.
Other Grassroots parties have previously operated in the U.S. states of Iowa and Vermont, but are no longer active.

Platform

United States Bill of Rights

The permanent platform of the Grassroots Party is the Bill of Rights. Individual candidates' positions on issues vary from Libertarian to Green. All Grassroots candidates would end marijuana/hemp prohibition, thus re-legalizing cannabis for all its uses.

History

Early history

The Grassroots Party was established in Minnesota in 1986, by Derrick Grimmer, Tim Davis, Chris Wright and Oliver Steinberg, as an independent political party that focused on marijuana legalization. Derrick Grimmer, Ph.D., ran for Minnesota Attorney General in 1986. Grimmer received 16,394 votes.
In 1990, Ross Culverhouse, a computer programmer and Vietnam veteran was the Grassroots gubernatorial candidate. Culverhouse received 17,176 votes. Will Shetterly, a science-fiction writer and actor, ran for governor of Minnesota in 1994. He placed third out of six candidates.
The Grassroots Party of Minnesota ran a full slate of statewide candidates in 1994 and won more votes than all other third parties in Minnesota combined.
Russell Bentley, a party candidate for US Senate in 1990 and US Congress in 1992 and GRP board member, was arrested on marijuana smuggling charges in 1996. Bentley was sentenced to five years in federal prison.
In 2000, the party nominated David Daniels, an African American playwright/performance artist from Minneapolis, as candidate for the United States Senate. Daniels had a very small campaign budget and was only invited to speak at some events broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio and Twin Cities Public Television. On election day, Daniels received 21,447 votes.
In 2002, Grassroots Party co-founder and candidate, Tim Davis, joined the Green Party. Davis returned to the Grassroots Party and ran for United States Senator in 2012.

Results in Minnesota state elections 1986–1998

Results in federal elections 1988–2000

U.S. Presidential candidates

, author of The Emperor Wears No Clothes: Hemp & The Marijuana Conspiracy, was the Grassroots presidential candidate in 1988 and 1992.
Grassroots Party ran candidates in every presidential election from 1988 to 2000.
In 1996 the Grassroots Party of Minnesota nominated Dennis Peron in the presidential election. In 2000, the Grassroots Party of Vermont nominated Denny Lane as its presidential candidate. In 2012, the Grassroots Party nominated Minnesota businessman Jim Carlson as its presidential candidate.

Results in presidential elections

The Independent Grassroots Party

In Minnesota in 1996 the Grassroots Party split, forming the Independent Grassroots party for one election cycle. John Birrenbach was the Independent Grassroots Presidential candidate and George McMahon was the Vice-presidential candidate. Dan Vacek was the Independent Grassroots candidate for US Representative. In 1998, members of the Independent Grassroots Party established the Legal Marijuana Now political party.

Minnesota

The Legalize Cannabis political party

In 2010, Grassroots candidate Chris Wright was on the ballot in the governor's election.
In 2014, Grassroots Party of Minnesota changed its name to Grassroots-Legalize Cannabis Party. In the 2014 race for Governor, Wright received 31,259 votes. The party also ran a candidate for State Auditor, in 2014, who received 55,132 votes.
The Grassroots-Legalize Cannabis Party nominated their candidates by petition in 2018 to run for Governor of Minnesota, as well as in the race for Minnesota Attorney General, the results of which earned the group major-party status in Minnesota.

Results in Minnesota state elections

Results in federal elections

California

In 2016, musician and martial artist Marvin Sotelo ran for U.S. House of Representatives in California's 40th congressional district as a Grassroots Party candidate. In California the top two vote-getters in the primary advance to the general election. Sotelo did not make it onto the ballot.

Iowa

Derrick Grimmer, Ph.D., a founding member of the Grassroots Party, moved from Minnesota to Iowa in 1988 and formed the Grassroots Party of Iowa. Grimmer ran for Iowa State Treasurer in 1990 and received 15,745 votes and he ran for U.S. House of Representatives in 1994 and received 2,282 votes.

Results in Iowa state elections

Results in federal elections

Vermont

The Vermont Grassroots Party formed in 1994. In 1994, Vermont Grassroots ran candidates for U.S. Senator, U.S. Representative, Auditor of Accounts, and Attorney General.
In 1996 Vermont Grassroots ran another slate of candidates including Governor, Lieutenant Governor, U.S. Representative, Attorney General, Auditor of Accounts, State Treasurer, and Secretary of State.
Three Vermont Grassroots candidates won five percent or more of the popular vote in the 1996 election, qualifying the Grassroots Party for "major party" status in Vermont.
In 1998 Vermont Grassroots ran a slate of candidates including gubernatorial candidate Joel Williams who received 3,305 votes and U.S. Senate candidate Bob Melamede who received 2,459 votes. Matthew Mulligan received 3,464 votes for U.S. Representative; Randy Bushey got 12,312 votes for State Treasurer; Steven Saetta got 6,345 votes for Auditor of Accounts; Dennis "Denny" Lane received 8,347 votes for Secretary of State and Sandy "Wells" Ward got 17,954 votes for Attorney General.
In 2000 the Vermont Grassroots Party ran a slate of candidates with Ward leading the ticket as candidate for Attorney General, receiving 38,713 votes, or 14.7% of the popular vote.
Again, in 2002, Vermont Grassroots fielded a full statewide ticket and this time Teresa Bouchard led the way as candidate for State Treasurer with 10,757 votes.
In 2002 one of the state leaders, Joel Williams, became a member of the Libertarian Party of Vermont.
The Grassroots Party of Vermont fielded candidates representing a mixture of liberal and libertarian views for over a decade. The Vermont Grassroots Party dissolved in 2004.

Results in Vermont state elections

Results in federal elections

Publications

''The Canvas''

The Canvas, the newsletter of the Grassroots Party of Minnesota, was published quarterly from 1991 until 1998. It reached a circulation of 5,000 printed copies.
The name of The Canvas was inspired by Webster's Dictionary definition of the word, which literally means "hempen."
The Canvas newsletter was designed and edited by Dan Vacek. In 1994, Will Shetterly edited and produced The Canvas for several issues. The last two issues of the newsletter were edited by Steven Anderson.