Since the organization had no national party affiliation, it merely ran a straw poll to gauge the opinions of members with regard to the available presidential candidates in the 2004 election.

On March 5, 2004, the party announced that the presidential winner was John Edwards, who had privately circulated his decision to withdraw shortly before IP members voted.

In May 2005, Peter Hutchinson, who was Minnesota Finance Commissioner in the Rudy Perpich administration, announced that he was planning to seek the Independence Party's nomination for governor in the 2006 election.

His candidacy had a significant impact on a race in which the eventual winner Al Franken and then-incumbent Senator Norm Coleman were separated by only 312 votes.

2008 is the high-water mark for the Minnesota Independence Party in both the number of federal candidates running and the percent of vote received—both key measures of the base of support.

Senator David Durenberger received 12% of the vote,[10] nearly doubling the total of previous IP gubernatorial candidate Peter Hutchinson.

Horner polled as high as 18% in the weeks leading up to the election,[11] but was significantly outspent by the GOP and DFL candidates and the third-party expenditure groups supporting their candidacies.

Horner did receive endorsement from three of the state's five living ex-governors: Republicans Arne Carlson and Al Quie as well as Ventura.

Cloud Times, Duluth News Tribune, and Rochester Post-Bulletin, as well as North Dakota's Grand Forks Herald endorsed the IP candidate.

[14] In 2016, the party endorsed Evan McMullin, a former CIA agent and former chief policy director for the House Republican Conference, for President.

In social policy the party tends to take more liberal-libertarian positions on issues such as abortion, gay marriage, and civil rights and liberties.

In our party and public affairs, we are ever vigilant to promote only those rules and laws which assure equity and freedom for all citizens.

[19] Delegates also lifted the party's prohibition on receiving money from political action committees, citing the need to instead fight for transparency and accountability in Minnesota campaign spending in the aftermath of Citizens United.