For the Libertarian Party of Minnesota, election victory does not rest on their presidential candidate actually winning.

If the Libertarian Party’s Gary Johnson receives 5 percent of the vote in Minnesota, his minor party would gain major party status in the state. Johnson, a former New Mexico governor, will visit Minnesota for a rally Thursday evening at Shakopee’s Canterbury Park to encourage that possibility.

The party appears on the cusp: In both Minnesota and national polling, the Libertarian Party has pulled an average of at least 5 percent of those polled. While that might decline as Election Day draws closer, backers are hopeful. Related Articles Senate GOP plans vote on Trump’s court pick before election

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Emily Kaess, who spends her weekends door-knocking to urge support for Johnson and his running mate, Bill Weld, believes there are enough people like her to make it happen.

Kaess, 40, of Robbinsdale, had never been involved with a political party before and doesn’t plan on staying involved in the party after the election. But she believes in Johnson.

“If you find a candidate you like, but (he or she) is an underdog, you have to get involved,” she said.

READY TO BE MAJOR?

Leaders believe the move up in the ranks would allow the group to expand the small-scale political framework it has laid throughout the state and could result in bigger gains in local elections.

Since the group would no longer have to collect signatures to get onto ballots — which consumes volunteer hours — it would be able to focus most of its resources on campaigning and building its constituency, said Cara Schulz, state director of the Johnson/Weld 2016 campaign and candidate for Burnsville City Council. Minor parties in Minnesota need to submit signatures to win ballot access. Major parties do not.

“It will level the playing field,” Schulz said.

With major party status, the group would seek to bolster some of its city- and county-level organizations, which have already grown during this election cycle, she said. Party leaders also believe that if it got the major-party boost, voters — and the media — would give the party more attention.

Still, party members said the grassroots campaigning, which has long been a bedrock ideal of the party, would remain.

“This is how we would prefer to see political messages spread,” said Chris Dock, state chair of the Libertarian Party of Minnesota. The organization has rallied against large amounts of money in politics, he said, and major party status wouldn’t change that.

The appeal worked for Lana Fanger, 47. The South Minneapolis resident said she had been a fairly active Democrat throughout her life, but said the Democratic Farmer Labor party turned her off during the last Minneapolis mayoral race. As she reassessed her political views, the Libertarians stood out.

The party emphasizes an individualistic nature as one of its biggest draws, preferring less-intrusive government both domestically and abroad.

“I think I was always more of a Libertarian than I thought,” she said this week at a downtown Minneapolis coffee shop, where half a dozen Johnson supporters gathered after campaigning to those gathered for a Monday night pro-wrestling event at Target Center.

HIGH CLIMB

As the volunteers talked about their views on the presidential race and how they got involved in the Libertarian party, all of them expressed optimism that the group would gain major-party status in Minnesota this year.

Still, the winning and maintaining major party status isn’t easy, said Richard Winger, editor of Ballot Access News, a newsletter about third parties.

The Libertarian Party has never attained major party status in Minnesota, he said, although other groups such as the Independence Party of Minnesota had it — and lost it — in recent years.

Nevertheless, Minnesota’s friendliness toward third parties doesn’t mean that the Libertarian Party has an easy road to major party status, Winger said. Many minor-party candidates are on the ballot, which could split the vote and cut into the Libertarian Party’s vote total.