Hagelin threatened to sue the organizers of the National Issues Convention, a forum on social issues held in January 1996, if he was not allowed to participate along with the Republican and Democratic candidates. He continued to have trouble attracting attention from the media. At the Utah press conference announcing that the NLP had qualified for the ballot, only a single reporter attended. NLP candidates, including Hagelin, said they did not expect to win but were using the campaigns to spread their message.