So many things have been happening in the past few weeks that it has been a challenge to keep up with everything. First of all, the Texas Constitution Party recently received a donation in the amount of $7,000.00 toward the rental of a booth at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) to be held in National Harbor, MD, just outside of Washington, DC, on Feb 21st through the 24th. The national party has agreed to provide the literature and other material for the event. This will give the party exposure to the attendees there that we have not had in years. We are grateful to the Texas Party for making this possible.

Secondly, the recent anonymous $1,500.00 donation to assist us in getting ballot access in Hawaii has paid off big time. We turned in nearly double the number of required signature on January 19th to the Hawaii Secretary of State. The following week we were notified that the required minimum of 750 valid signatures was met. In all, including the $1,500.00 donation, a total of over $3,500.00 was received from our supporters that made this possible. This is the first time ever that the party has qualified for ballot position in Hawaii in a non-presidential election year, and will enable us to run candidates for office there this year. Only two states, Alaska and South Dakota, gave the Castle/Bradley ticket a higher percentage of the presidential vote than did Hawaii, and only 14 states garnered more votes for the Constitution Party ticket than did Hawaii. This all came as a surprise to the party leaders. It is obvious that our message resonates in that state.

Our focus is now on the state of North Carolina where the required number of valid signatures was recently lowered from nearly 95,000 to 12,000. Our people in North Carolina wasted no time in getting the ballot petition drive going there. Since mid-December, the state party has been gathering signatures at one to three gun shows each weekend and have thus far gathered nearly 1,300 signatures. These signatures have all been collected on a volunteer basis which is most remarkable. The signatures need to be turned in to the respective counties for validation, then returned to the party leaders who in turn must deliver them to the North Carolina Secretary of State by the end of May of this year. Reaching that goal will not only put the party on the ballot in 2018 but will also qualify the party for ballot access in the 2020 Presidential Election.

The North Carolina party leaders have already raised a significant amount of funds to finance the ballot access effort. Among those efforts is a gun raffle that is being offered at $5.00 per ticket. You are welcome to participate in that raffle and can read all the details at the Constitution Party of North Carolina website. The last day of the raffle is February 3rd, so there is very little time left should you wish to participate. Achieving ballot access in North Carolina will be a historic first for the party. We have never before been on the ballot in that state.

What is more amazing is that because of the $1,500.00 anonymous donation we received to get us on the ballot in Hawaii, yet another donor (this time from North Carolina) has offered a matching donation, dollar for dollar, of up to $4,750.00 to get the party ballot-qualified in that state. This is an incredible offer that we simply cannot afford to pass up. If you have not taken the opportunity to financially assist us in our ballot access endeavor yet, I would earnestly encourage you to do so now. Donations of any amount are urgently needed and are deeply appreciated. Donate $5.00, $10.00, $15.00, $20,00, $25.00, $50.00, $100.00, $500.00 or whatever you can to the party. You can donate online here, or if you prefer, you can mail your donation to the Constitution Party at PO Box 1782 Lancaster, PA 17608.

Starting this week we will have a full-time professional petitioner in North Carolina gathering signatures every day. He has offered us an extremely reasonable per signatures rate for which we are most grateful. Our volunteer workers will continue to gather signatures on weekends at gun shows and other events, but to reach our 12,000 signature goal by the end of May it is going to require the help of professional signature gatherers. We need to raise the funds in the coming weeks to keep our momentum going. Achieving ballot access in Hawaii has opened up new doors for us and gaining ballot access in North Carolina will open up yet more windows of opportunity, so we simply must achieve success in North Carolina by the end of May. Please do all you can to make this possible. Mark your donation for ballot access.

Once again, my sincere thanks and gratitude to each of you for your generous financial support in the past.