Minnesota has four ballot-qualified parties:  the two major parties, the Legal Marijuana Now Party, and the Grassroots-Legalize Cannabis Party.  Minnesota has eight U.S. House seats.  In six districts, one or the other of the marijuana parties had a nominee.  Treating the two parties as a single party, their nominees polled 6.86% of the vote in the districts in which they had candidates.

This is easily the best showing by any party, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, in U.S. House races around the country.  All of the Minnesota districts had a Republican and a Democratic running as well.  There were U.S. House districts around the nation in which a Libertarian Party nominee polled above 15%, but those were all districts with only one major party nominee.

Minnesota did not have any independent candidates on the ballot for U.S. House, nor any minor party nominees for U.S. House other than from the two marijuana parties.  Minnesota has very stringent ballot access for office other than president.  Also Minnesota doesn’t have the initiative process, so marijuana legalization advocates can’t work toward their goal using the initiative process.

On December 14, Congressmember Paul Mitchell of Michigan’s 10th district told the Clerk of the U.S. House to switch his partisan affiliation in the Congressional Directory from Republican to independent.  Michigan doesn’t have registration by party, so there is no other method for anyone to announce party membership or independent status than to say so publicly.

Mitchell was elected for the first time in 2016, and was re-elected in 2018, but did not run in 2020, so he has less than a month in office.  He represents the “thumb” of the Michigan “hand”, the area north of Detroit that extends into Lake Huron.  Thanks to Political Wire for this news.