Politics
Almost Every GOP Lawmaker That Trump-Linked PAC Supported With Marijuana Industry Donations Lost Their Election
Nearly every Republican member of Congress whose reelection campaign was supported by marijuana industry donations funneled through a Trump-linked political action committee lost their race in last week’s midterm elections.
As Marijuana Moment previously reported, some of the U.S.’s largest cannabis companies donated a collective $11.5 million to America First Agriculture Action Inc. in June.
The contributions—from Trulieve Inc., Curaleaf Inc., Verano Holdings LLC and Ascend Wellness Holdings Inc., along with other entities tied to Green Thumb Industries and AYR Wellness Inc.—brought the total amount of donations from cannabis businesses or an industry-linked political action committee to Trump-linked PACs to at least $15.05 million, according to a review of Federal Election Commission filings.
The agriculture-focused PAC then spent more than $4 million in marijuana industry money to support several GOP lawmakers who were in tough reelection fights—including several who have voted against legislation to legalize cannabis.
See the PAC’s spending this cycle in support of and against specific candidates and the result of their races:
| CANDIDATE | STANCE | AMOUNT | RESULT |
| Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI) | Support | $529,058.60 | Lost |
| Rep. Nick Begich III (R-AK) | Support | $378,246.43 | Uncalled |
| Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-PA) | Support | $359,606.04 | Lost |
| Rep. Tom Barrett (R-MI) | Support | $358,678.90 | Lost |
| Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ) | Support | $356,297.37 | Lost |
| Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) | Support | $321,742.11 | Lost |
| Rep. Gabe Evans (R-CO) | Support | $300,132.89 | Lost |
| Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) | Support | $288,774.79 | Lost |
| Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) | Support | $284,927.36 | Lost |
| Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R-PA) | Support | $239,076.28 | Lost |
| Rep. Jeff Crank (R-CO) | Support | $206,984.22 | Lost |
| Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) | Support | $162,815.87 | Lost |
| Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-VA) | Support | $120,861.09 | Lost |
| Rep. Max Miller (R-OH) | Support | $51,502.20 | Lost |
| Brian Poindexter (Democratic challenger) | Oppose | $106,397.40 | Defeated Rep. Max Miller (R-OH) |
All but one of the embattled Republicans supported by the cannabis industry funds lost their seats, while one race remains uncalled.
The PAC used the funds received from the marijuana businesses to send direct mail pieces and run ads touting the voting records of the incumbent GOP lawmakers—without mentioning cannabis at all. Instead, the spots targeted to each candidate noted, for example, that they voted to ban insider trading by members of Congress and supported tax cuts, including a measure to make it so there would be no taxes on tips, overtime and social security.
While most of the members supported with the marijuana business money were first sworn into Congress in 2023 or 2025 and have no cannabis-related voting record, Fitzpatrick, Perry and Steil, have been around longer, beginning in 2017, 2013 and 2019, respectively.
In 2020 and 2022, all three voted against Democratic-led bills to federally legalize marijuana.
Kiggans, for her part, was a Virginia state senator prior to joining Congress and in that capacity voted against legislation to legalize cannabis.
MacKenzie voted against legalizing medical cannabis in Pennsylvania in 2016 as a member of the state House of Representatives.
Ciscomani reportedly cheered the defeat of a marijuana legalization ballot initiative in Arizona in 2016, calling it an “awesome victory for our community.”
Lawler said during a debate with his ultimately successful Democratic opponent in September that the legalization of cannabis is “hurting” society. He also said last year that it would be “wrong” for the Trump administration to reschedule cannabis, claiming that “marijuana is a gateway drug” and arguing that “most of the people [who] end up using harder substances start out on marijuana.” He also joined a sign-on letter to the president arguing that rescheduling cannabis would “send the wrong message to America’s children, enable drug cartels, and make our roads more dangerous.” The congressman is additionally a cosponsor of a bill that would continue to block marijuana businesses from taking federal tax deductions under Internal Revenue Service (IRS) code 280E, even under rescheduling.
Perry backed an amendment to protect state medical cannabis programs from federal interference in 2015 as well as a separate proposal to shield recreational marijuana laws as well—but then voted against similar broad amendments in 2019 and 2020. Fitzpatrick and Steil also voted against the amendments to block federal interference with state marijuana laws.
Fitzpatrick opposed amendments in 2014, 2015 and 2016 to let military veterans receive medical marijuana recommendations from Department of Veterans Affairs Doctors. Perry opposed that first iteration of the proposal before supporting it in the latter two votes.
Both Fitzpatrick and Perry voted in support of legislation to increase cannabis businesses’ access to banking services in 2019 and 2021, however.
Although Trump’s administration has taken steps to federally reschedule marijuana, Republican congressional leadership and many members of the party’s House and Senate conferences remain openly hostile to cannabis reform.
The GOP-controlled House Appropriations Committee this year voted to block federal officials from taking further steps to carry out cannabis rescheduling, for example.
The only two times that Congress has considered marijuana legalization legislation on the floor was under Democratic control in 2020 and 2022, via the bills that Fitzpatrick, Perry and all but a handful of Republicans voted against.
Notably, the treasurer of the agriculture PAC that spent marijuana business donations in support of GOP lawmakers, Charles Gantt, is the same person named as treasurer of Trump’s political committee, MAGA Inc., which has separately received $2.05 million in donations from a cannabis-industry-backed committee, the American Rights and Reform PAC, Inc.
Last year, that cannabis industry PAC additionally gave a total of $1.5 million to the agriculture PAC.
Earlier FEC records also previously showed that Trulieve and Curaleaf contributed a total of $1 million to support Trump’s inaugural committee following his election in 2024. Curaleaf executive Matt Harrell is listed as treasurer of the American Rights and Reform PAC.
The most recent contributions from the cannabis companies to the Trump-linked agriculture PAC came weeks after the Department of Justice announced it is moving forward with the process of federally rescheduling marijuana, a reform that Trump backed during the 2024 campaign and then issued an executive order on late last year.
Last August, America First Agriculture Action Inc. released an ad highlighting Trump’s endorsement of the reform on the campaign trail.
Shortly after Trump signed his cannabis executive order in December, the similarly named nonprofit America First Agriculture Inc. released an ad applauding the move, arguing that it will “destroy” the illicit market and support seniors and military veterans who could benefit from cannabis.
The cannabis industry-backed American Rights and Reform PAC separately released ads last year that attacked the marijuana policy record of President Joe Biden, whose administration initiated the cannabis rescheduling process that is now underway, in an apparent attempt to push Trump to go further on the issue.
More recently, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), the House Democratic leader, raised funds from cannabis business executives.
