Politics
Majority Of Marijuana Consumers Plan To Vote For Kamala Harris Over Donald Trump, Despite Both Candidates Backing Legalization, Poll Finds
A majority of voters who use marijuana say they’ll be casting their vote for Vice President Kamala Harris, according to a new poll. Still, two in five cannabis consumers say they’ll be backing former President Donald Trump.
The survey from the cannabis telehealth platform NuggMD looked at the political preferences of marijuana users ahead of next month’s election—with the two major party nominees aligned for the first time ever in their support for legalization.
It found that 53 percent of cannabis consumers plan to vote for Harris, compared to 40 percent who intend to select Trump. Another 6 percent of respondents said they remain undecided.
Pollsters also isolated voters in six specific states: California, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania. Majorities of marijuana consumers in three of those states said they’re backing Harris; two are going for Trump; and in one, cannabis voters are evenly split.
Here’s the breakdown of how cannabis consumers plan to vote based on that state-level polling:
California
Harris: 55 percent
Trump: 39 percent
Missouri
Harris: 49 percent
Trump: 49 percent
New York
Harris: 61 percent
Trump: 35 percent
Ohio
Harris: 42 percent
Trump: 58 percent
Oklahoma
Harris: 37 percent
Trump: 54 percent
Pennsylvania
Harris: 69 percent
Trump: 31 percent
NuggMD’s survey involved interviews with 623 people who identify as cannabis consumers from October 24-27, with an overall +/-3.9 percentage point margin of error.
Another recent series of poll on Pennsylvania voters in competitive districts, including those currently controlled by Republican lawmakers, found bipartisan support for legalizing marijuana.
Separately, a poll released last week found that a majority of voters—including supporters Trump—back the Biden administration’s push to reschedule marijuana. And notably, Trump supporters are more likely to say that cannabis laws are important them, compared to those supporting Harris.
While this is the first election in U.S. history where both major party candidates are in favor of legalizing marijuana, the Harris campaign has been leaning more strongly into her reform position in recent weeks.
For example, last week Harris included legalizing marijuana as one of the top items on her “to-do list” if she wins the presidential election.
That came just weeks after the vice president first pledged to federally legalize marijuana since becoming the party’s nominee, promising that access to cannabis will become “the law of the land.”
If elected, she will “break down unjust legal barriers that hold Black men and other Americans back by legalizing marijuana nationally, working with Congress to ensure that the safe cultivation, distribution, and possession of recreational marijuana is the law of the land,” the Harris campaign said.
Also, last month, Harris made clear she still supports legalizing cannabis, which she previously pushed for as a senator but had not publicly discussed since becoming President Joe Biden’s running mate in 2020.
Separately, she also recently said that part of the reason for the delay in the administration’s current marijuana rescheduling effort is federal bureaucracy that “slows things down,” including at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Harris’s running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), has also been talking cannabis policy on the campaign trail. Last week, for example, he stressed that marijuana legalization must be coupled with policies that give those who’ve been disproportionately targeted by criminalization “the first shot to make money” in the legal cannabis industry.
While Harris and Walz are aligned in their belief that prohibition should be replaced with a system of legalization and regulation, the governor has largely focused on the rights of states to set their own cannabis laws, rather than weigh in on federal legalization prospects.
Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), has voiced support for letting states decide on their own marijuana policies, though he’s also said they should increase enforcement activities and complained about the smell of cannabis multiple times. Additionally, he’s repeatedly sounded the alarm about fentanyl-laced marijuana, though he more recently conceded that the issue isn’t widespread.
The Harris–Walz campaign, meanwhile, has accused Trump of lying about his support for marijuana reform—arguing that his “blatant pandering” runs counter to his administration’s record on cannabis.
Following Trump’s recent announcement of support for a Florida cannabis legalization ballot measure, the Democratic campaign has been working to communicate to voters that, while in office, Trump “took marijuana reform backwards.”
Also, on Thursday, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) said Harris’s support for marijuana legalization is part of the nominee’s “freedom agenda.” He made the remarks at an event hosted by musician and marijuana icon Willie Nelson on Thursday.
NuggMD, the medical marijuana company behind the latest political preferences survey, separately released a poll in August finding that nearly 8 in 10 say they purchase all or most of their marijuana from licensed retailers—seemingly supporting advocates’ arguments that enacting regulated markets can detract from illicit sellers.
A separate NuggMD survey released earlier this year, meanwhile, found that nearly a third of marijuana consumers say they would go back to the illicit market if cannabis was rescheduled and only made legally available as a Food and Drug Administration- (FDA) approved prescription drug.
A more recent poll from the company found that about 1 in 4 marijuana consumers use marijuana for pain management, and most say they prefer fruity-tasting strains.
Photo courtesy of Jurassic Blueberries.
