Great News from Missouri
We are very pleased to announce that, for the first time in Missouri history, the Green Party appears set to be an established statewide political party in Missouri (pending official Secretary of State certification). There were two legal requirements for this goal: Gather 10,000 signatures of registered Missouri voters requesting to put the Party on the ballot statewide and one of our statewide candidates must get over 2% of the vote in last night's election. In August 2016, we met the first requirement with 25,000 signatures. On November 8, 2016, we met the second requirement as our candidate, Jennifer Leach for Lieutenant Governor, got over 2% of the vote–over 65,000 votes. Several of our other local candidates received vote percentages ranging from 18-24%. For the compressed period of time we had to campaign, this is a remarkable achievement.
We have immense gratitude for all of the many volunteers who sweated to collect signatures this summer, the activist organizers who spent hours of their lives working for this goal, the Jill Stein Campaign & Green Party of the United States who provided crucial petitioning support, the fourteen brave people who stepped up to be Green Party candidates in 2016, and everyone who bucked the pressure and bravely voted Green. We are a people-powered movement and this success belongs to those people who made history tonight.
This is the dawning of a new era for Green politics in Missouri and just the beginning of what we can accomplish! We have statewide ballot access for the next four years. We can focus on campaigning up and down the ballot, challenging entrenched power in every corner of Missouri, without having to spend time on collecting signatures. We will participate in the primary elections as well now. The electoral tool we have will be our platform for boosting Green values and bringing attention to the urgent issues of our time.
With the failures of capitalism enabling a surge of right wing populism, this country urgently requires the left to build a party of the 99% with true populist solutions that work for all. Now, more than ever, is the time for Green activists in Missouri to plug in and help build this independent revolutionary party.
