About the Green Party

 (MDWelcome! Here’s some helpful information about the Green Party.

Note that the Green Party is the only national political party in the United States that does not accept any money from corporations, PACs, or unions.  Every candidate must pledge in writing not to accept such funds, as Nancy has done.  You can always trust our Green Party candidates to represent only you, the people, and our precious planet.


Founding

The Green Party was started in Germany in 1979, by Petra Kelly along with a few other German environmentalists.   The founding Greens committed to the Four Pillars which are the core of all formal Green Parties:

Green parties exist today in nearly 90 countries around the world. It is a political party fully registered in the United States, and most of the individual states.  The national parties are organized into a loose alliance, Global Greens.

https://www.globalgreens.org/

Green Party (USA)

The US Green Party grew out of the first national Green organization started in 1984.  After the formation and evolution of many state parties, the national political party was recognized by the Federal Elections Commission in the 2000s.  The party, which is the country’s fourth-largest by membership, promotes environmentalism, nonviolence, social justice, participatory grassroots democracy, feminism, LGBT rights, and anti-racism.  The party has long held to a core, well-known set of 10 Key Values:

  1. Grassroots Democracy
  2. Social Justice and Equal Opportunity
  3. Ecological Wisdom
  4. Non-violence
  5. Decentralization
  6. Community-Based Economics and Economic Justice
  7. Feminism and Gender Equity
  8. Respect for Diversity
  9. Personal and Global Responsibility
  10. Future Focus and Sustainability

For more information, see:

http://www.gp.org/

Dr. Jill Stein was our outstanding presidential candidate in the 2012 and 2016 presidential races, and Howie Hawkins in 2020.

Maryland Green Party

The Maryland Green Party is the result of many years of independent green political activism from the 1980s and 90s, such as the Potomac Valley Green Network.  The party first qualified to run candidates in Maryland in 2000. Since then the party has run candidates for office in every state and Presidential election. The Maryland Green Party is committed to running candidates for public office who show their commitment for the Green Party’s key values.

http://www.mdgreens.org/

Greens of Montgomery County

The Montgomery County group has been active since 2000, at both the county and state level.  In 2002 Linda Schade ran for Maryland House of Delegates from Takoma Park, District 20, earning 35% of the vote and mobilizing 1,000 grassroots volunteers.  The group works actively on local County Council measures such as testifying and helping pass the Safe Grow Montgomery bill in October 2015, the first county in the nation to ban pesticides and other dangerous chemicals from ornamental lawn care.  The group is currently supporting a campaign to increase the county’s green building energy efficiency standards to the International Green Construction Code (IgCC).  Please come to our monthly meetings on the third Tuesday of every month.  More info and email signup at:

http://www.montgomerycountygreenparty.org/

Nancy has served as co-chair of the Montgomery County Green Party since February 2015.  For more information on her county work, see “Meet Nancy”.

To join the Green Party in Maryland,

You may change your party affiliation at any time, or register for the first time, except for limited blackout periods just before the  state’s primary and general elections.  You may change your party or register online:

http://www.elections.state.md.us/voter_registration/

Then choose Introduction, and Political Parties.  Follow the site’s instructions, and email Nancy (nancy@nancywallace.us) if you have any problems.