The Maryland Green Party is the state party organization for Maryland of the Green Party of the United States. The Maryland Green Party qualified as a recognized political party on August 17 2000,[1] since that time the party has grown dramatically and as of June 30 2007 there were 8,108 Greens in Maryland. [2] During the 2006 elections U.S. Senate candidate Kevin Zeese became the first Maryland Green Party candidate for statewide office to be invited to debate the major party candidates. Zeese went on to win third place by getting over twenty-five thousand (25,000) votes. [3]