Mark Gerald Elworth Jr., August 6, 1976 (Omaha, Neb.) -
VP candidate for Legal Marijuana Now Party (2016)
Running mate with nominee: Daniel Robert Vacek (b. 1961)
Popular vote: 13,538 (0.01%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
A bit of history-- The Independent Grassroots Party split from the Grassroots Party in 1995/1996. According to newspaper accounts at the time the division seemed to be the old single-issue vs. multi-issue platforms, a struggle over purity that is rather common in the history of third parties.
The Grassroots Party had been formed in 1986 to promote the legalization of marijuana and had already run candidates for President in two election cycles. In 1996 they decided to broaden their platform to include, according to the St. Cloud Times, "legalized prostitution, removal of all gun restrictions and a lower legal age for consensual sex." So a number of members who felt the original focus was being obscured walked out and formed the Independent Grassroots Party, making an effort to stay with the original focus.
In 1996 the IGP ran a Presidential ticket of John Birrenbach/George Lee McMahon. Two years later the Party changed their name to the Legal Marijuana Now Party. Although active in campaign politics at more local levels in the intervening years, LMNP would not wage another Presidential effort until 2016.
The Party campaign issues included erasing past and present court convictions as well as ending drug testing in the workplace. A side controversy, not so much in evidence in 2016 but surfaced later, was the charge that Republicans were secretly doing what they could to promote LMNP in order to siphon votes away from Democrats.
Also in 2016 Elworth was seeking a seat in the Nebraska State Legislature. He was officially nonpartisan but apparently ran under the auspices of the Green Party.
On the ballot in two states, the Vacek/Elworth ticket finished with 0.38% in Minnesota (6th out of 9) and 0.14% in Iowa (8th out of 10). Nationally they finished in 10th place, ahead of the Socialist Workers Pary.
Howie Hawkins/Angela Walker won the nomination of the Socialist Party USA in Oct. 2019. On July 11, 2020, Hawkins/Walker received the Green Party nomination in their Age of COVID online convention. In Aug. 2020 Hawkins/Walker were nominated (some sources say "endorsed") by the Legal Marijuana Now Party. In the case of the Legal Marijuana Now Party, Rudy Reyes became the Presidential nominee of the Legal Marijuana Now Party ca. Mar. 2020 when Presidential nominee Mark Elworth Jr stepped down to run for US Congress as a Democrat in Nebraska. After winning the primary Elworth switched back to the LMNP and resumed his top spot on the ticket while Reyes once again became the VP. In August 2020 the LMNP dropped their ticket entirely and backed Hawkins.
In Feb. 2021 Elworth attempted to form a new entity called the MAGA Patriots Party of Nebraska [!!!] while at the same time being successful in gaining official Cornhusker recognition for the Legal Marijuana Now Party.
Election history:
2014 - Governor of Nebraska (Libertarian Party) - defeated
2016 - Nebraska State Legislature (Nonpartisan) - primary - defeated
2017 - Omaha, Neb. City Council (Nonpartisan) - defeated
2018 - US Senate (Neb.) (Libertarian Party) - primary - withdrew/disqualified
2018 - US House of Representatives (Iowa) (Legal Medical [Marijuana] Now Party) - defeated
2020 - US House of Representatives (Neb.) (Democratic) - defeated
2020 - US President (Legal Marijuana Now Party) - withdrew, reinstated, withdrew
Other occupations: state party chairperson of Nebraska Legal Marijuana Now Party, activist
Notes:
Rudy Reyes was interviewed on this blog in that window of time shortly after he first became the 2020 LMNP VP nominee
https://thirdpartysecondbananas.blogspot.com/2019/07/rudy-reyes-2020-vp-legal-marijuana-now_23.html
