U.S. HOUSE AND SENATE NOMINATING PROCESS
According to the Maryland Green Party's bylaws, all individuals seeking nomination by the Green Party for offices other than President and Vice President must be members of the Green Party (Section 10.4).
To be considered for candidacy as the Green Party candidate for any statewide office, a person must be nominated by a Local or by at least three MGP members, who shall offer a statement of the candidate’s name, address, and qualifications for the office, to the Electoral Committee (Section 10.5). Candidates must also follow all applicable state or federal requirements for declaring candidacy, including establishing a campaign committee with the appropriate agency (Maryland State Board of Elections or Federal Election Commission).
Candidates for statewide office, or the United States Congress (House of Representatives and Senate) shall be nominated via a primary in which all registered Greens in the jurisdiction are eligible to vote by preference vote. The primary should occur during the three weeks following the deadline for filing a Declaration of Intent in the year in which a General Election will occur (Section 10.6).
For 2024, the deadline for filing a Declaration of Intent for a candidate who seeks nomination by a recognized non-principal party is July 1st, 2024. Therefore, the Maryland Green Party primary election will be held between July 2nd and July 25th, 2024.
LOCAL NOMINATING PROCESS
According to Section 10.7 of the Maryland Green Party's bylaws, candidates for municipal, county, or district offices shall seek endorsement from the Local or confederation of Locals that comprise the candidate’s district, in accordance with Article 3 and Sections 4.5 and 4.6.
Locals should have a fair and transparent local candidate endorsement process. Endorsements must occur after the deadline for candidates to file a Declaration of Intent and be open to any registered Green seeking the nomination.
All local endorsement processes should be published on the state party website and on local party websites (if applicable) at least one year in advance of the filing deadline. Local nomination/endorsement processes are available here.
PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATING PROCESS
The Maryland Green Party intends to nominate a candidate for the President of the United States in 2024. As part of the national primary election process for this office, the MGP will hold its own primary election to select delegates to send to the Green Party's Presidential Nominating Convention. The following guidelines apply to this process.
PLACEMENT ON MGP BALLOT
The Maryland Green Party will hold a state-wide primary election in which all party members may vote for a nominee. In order to be placed on the ballot for this primary election, candidates must either:
A. be recognized as a candidate for President by the Green Party of the United States, according to the standards set by the Presidential Campaign Support Committee, OR
B. meet the following qualifications, to be verified by a designee of the Maryland Green Party Coordinating Council:
1. submit a completed questionnaire (download the questionnaire here);
2. be affiliated with the Green Party (i.e. not a registrant or otherwise a party member of any state or national level political party in the individual’s primary state of residence except for a state party which has affiliated with GPUS, or a party forming for the intent of GPUS affiliation in a state where there is no GPUS affiliated state party);
4. maintain a dedicated website to promote the candidate’s candidacy, where the website must be publicly accessible via a provided URL, is controlled by the candidate, is not shared with another campaign, clearly identifies that the candidate is running for the Green Party nomination, and has an online donation capability (social media pages do not satisfy this requirement);
5. establish a federal campaign committee for the current presidential campaign, as recognized in public listings of the Federal Elections Commission; and
6. demonstrate fundraising success consistent with running a viable national campaign by either (a) raising at least $5000 where no more than $250 from any individual donor may count towards this threshold and least $300 must have been raised from at least five states, or at least $100 from at least ten states OR (b) having received donations of at least $10 each from at least 100 individual donors. This metric shall be verified through campaign finance reports filed with the FEC and posted on the FEC’s web site.
SUPPORTING RESOURCES
The Maryland Green Party will provide the following supporting resources for candidates during the Presidential nomination process.
A. The MGP will maintain a "Presidential Candidates" webpage on mdgreens.org listing candidates for the Green Party's Presidential nomination. Until December 31, 2023, any candidate who is affiliated with the Green Party and has filed FEC Form 2 - 'Statement of Candidacy' may request that a link to their campaign website and a 250-word personal statement be placed on this page. The MGP reserves the right to edit the statement for clarity or content. Candidates may request that the link to their website direct to a specific subdomain, such as a page specifically designed for Maryland Greens. Starting January 1, 2024, all candidates must meet the above qualifications for placement on the MGP ballot in order to be listed on the MGP's "Presidential Candidates" webpage.
B. The MGP will send e-mail notifications ("e-blasts") to its entire mailing list in November 2023, January 2024, March 2024, and May 2024 including a list of all candidates listed on the MGP's "Presidential Candidates" webpage at the time of the e-mail, including links to their campaign websites.
If the MGP decides at any time to provide additional supporting resources to candidates, it should offer access to those resources to all candidates listed on the MGP's "Presidential Candidates" webpage at the time those resources are made available.
The MGP will not provide contact information for or lists of Green Party members to any candidate before the conclusion of the Green Party Presidential Nominating Convention. The MGP notes that by law any Maryland registered voter may purchase a list of all Maryland registered voters from the Maryland State Board of Elections to be used for electoral purposes.
The Presidential Nominating Process was approved on April 19, 2023. Section A of the 'Supporting Resources' section was amended on October 1, 2023.