Legal Marijuana Now party names candidate in 2nd District
The Legal Marijuana Now Party has nominated Paula Overby to run in Minnesota's 2nd Congressional District after candidate Adam Weeks died last month, according to a court document filed Tuesday.
Weeks' Sept. 21 death triggered a Minnesota law that moved the election to February. Democratic U.S. Rep. Angie Craig is asking a federal judge to block the change, saying the election should be in November.
News of Overby's nomination came in a court filing Tuesday in which Legal Marijuana Now Party co-chair Tim Davis opposed a November election, saying a special election in February would give his party time to get issues before voters.
Under Minnesota law, if a major party nominee dies within 79 days of Election Day, a special election must be held for that office on the second Tuesday in February. Legal Marijuana Now has major party status in Minnesota under a law that lets a small party qualify if one of its candidates for statewide office got at least 5 percent of the vote in a recent election.
Davis said in his court filing that if Craig were to succeed in having the election in November, voters for the Legal Marijuana Now Party and other third parties around the state would be affected. He said that without the special election, members of his party won't be entitled to elect Overby on the existing ballot.
Overby most recently ran against U.S. Sen. Tina Smith in the Democratic primary, getting 5.3 percent of the vote. She also ran as a Green Party candidate for Senate against U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar in 2018, and got less than 1 percent of the vote.
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