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 where Democratic Representative
Angie Craig 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. Minnesota Legal Marijuana Now! Party chair
Tim Davis said in a court filing that the ruling would disenfranchise party voters, and later encouraged Legal Marijuana Now! supporters to cast their votes for Weeks, in memoriam. The dead candidate received 5.83% of votes in the three-way race. 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, and more votes than the winner, DFL Senator
Tina Smith, led her Republican challenger, radio personality
Jason Lewis, in the race.
2022 congressional District 1 special election Minnesota Legal Marijuana Now Party nominated Richard Reisdorf of
Mankato, a disabled American
war veteran, to run for United States Representative from
Minnesota's 1st congressional district 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 and L.C. Converse. McCaskel was nominated for
Governor of Minnesota 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 choice for District 55A representative in 2020. Legal Marijuana Now! chair Davis was the party's 2022 Minnesota State Auditor nominee. To qualify and receive a share of Minnesota's elections funding intended to help regular Minnesotans run for office, Davis met a $6000 fundraising requirement before the summer deadline, reporting all income and expenditures publicly. Davis used the $28,000 Minnesota subsidy to print and distribute pro-marijuana legalization campaign fliers door to door, across the state. Incumbent Democratic State Auditor
Julie Blaha criticized Davis' brochures and website for not only promoting cannabis law reform, but also criticizing Blaha's involvement in a car crash and alleging a
Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party coverup of alcohol use contributing to the single-vehicle rollover. Blaha would have gotten another $28,000 from the fund in 2022, on top of $56,000 in public money already used by her campaign, had Davis not taken the state payout. Davis received 87,386 votes in the November 2022 State Auditor election, falling just short of the 5% threshold to major party status needed for extending Minnesota Legal Marijuana Now! Party ballot access through 2026.
2022 federal elections Paula Overby, a supporter of
Bernie Sanders 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 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 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 Steve Simon 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, while the Minnesota DFL 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, Travis "Bull" Johnson, a
Beltrami, Minnesota, goat farmer and
U.S. Army veteran, was endorsed by former District 7 Representative
Collin Peterson, 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 ==