The Libertarian Party of Minnesota has nearly tripled its public outreach this year over last! Events attended in previous years are being revisited, and activists are also raising the Libertarian banner at a number of new events. It’s been a busy summer; here’s a rundown of the efforts.
This year’s outreach season kicked off in April and May. The LPMN had a booth at the Tax Cut Rally at the St Paul Capitol, which unfortunately was sparsely attended due to rain. Our Rochester-based Southeast Affiliate, LPMN-SEA, also attended Earth Day in Winona.
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| LPMN outreach at the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair in June. |
Activism accelerated over June. For the first time, the LPMN appeared at the Hennepin County Fair in Corcoran, in far western Hennepin County. The LPMN also partnered with the Libertarian Party of Wisconsin to assist with outreach at the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair in central Wisconsin, a regional event which draws entrepreneurs and interested folks from across the Midwest, including Minnesota.
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| LPMN outreach at Twin Cities Pride in Minneapolis in June. More photos here. |
So far, the largest event has undoubtedly been Twin Cities Pride in downtown Minneapolis. A record 363 people took the World’s Smallest Political Quiz, surpassing the 314 people who took it last year. Our booth was extremely busy both days, with multiple volunteers staffing it and several additional volunteers assisting with the Gary Johnson ballot petition drive among the crowd, in what proved to be a very productive weekend.
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| LPMN outreach at the Ramsey County Fair in Maplewood in July. |
Most recently in July, the LPMN attended the Ramsey County Fair in Maplewood for the first time, as well as the East Ottertail County Fair in Perham, a west-central community north of Alexandria. Our Southeast Affiliate also raised the Libertarian banner at Rochester PrideFest, the only party besides the DFL to compete for the public’s attention at this event.
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| LPMN-SEA outreach at Rochester PrideFest in July. More photos here. |
At all of these events, longtime Libertarians were pleased to find the LPMN present, hundreds of new people learned for the first time that they are libertarian, and hundreds more were introduced to our stance supporting freedom on both personal and economic issues. Even for those who didn’t stop and only walked by, our visibility has increased greatly, with thousands of Minnesotans seeing that the LPMN is active.
And the summer outreach isn’t over yet! In another first, the LPMN will be attending the Washington County Fair in Lake Elmo, near Stillwater. More appearances are planned at St Cloud Pride and Duluth PrideFest.
Many thanks to our hardworking volunteers who’ve been assisting at these events. While many in the public simply complain about the state of things, kudos to our volunteers for realizing that it’s time to personally take a stand, step up, and get active for liberty! If you’d like to hear about upcoming volunteer opportunities, or even help out if you can, you may sign up for our volunteers list here.
An additional thanks to those who’ve recently joined the LPMN or renewed their membership. Those membership funds have been crucial for making all this activism possible. For folks who may not have time to volunteer, joining is a great way to contribute and help give the LPMN the resources we need to continue educating the public about our message of liberty for all people, on all issues, all the time. A bonus: as a member, you get a voting say in how our state party is run. All in all, the equation is simple: no members, no party. We couldn’t do it without you!
Concerned about the expansion of government control and the erosion of individual liberty? Please consider joining and becoming active with the Libertarian Party of Minnesota. Libertarians support liberty on all issues, all the time. Libertarianism is a philosophical and political movement to promote personal freedom, voluntary consent, a genuinely free marketplace, and peace.