Florida GOP Congressional Lawmakers Decline To Endorse Marijuana Legalization Initiative Despite Trump Support

Two more congressional Republicans representing Florida have weighed in on the state’s marijuana legalization initiative that will be on the November ballot—with one predicting it will fail and another saying he remains undecided on the measure even after former President Donald Trump came out in support of it.

Meanwhile, the chair of Florida’s Democratic Party is laying out a framework for regulating cannabis that she thinks the legislature should enact if voters do approve the reform. That involves automatic expungements for prior marijuana convictions, taking steps to mitigate the risk of monopolization in the industry and directing tax revenue to Black communities and education.

Members of Florida’s GOP congressional delegation have shared mixed opinions about Amendment 3 in recent weeks, but with the party’s presidential nominee now backing the proposal, some have wondered whether that might move the needle, both among voters and lawmakers representing those constituents.

Speaking with The Dales Report this week, Rep. Laurel Lee (R-FL) said, “I don’t think it’ll pass, but you will find out in November,” arguing that the 60 percent threshold required to pass a constitutional amendment makes it unlikely that there will be enough voters to get it enacted.

The congresswoman added that, “in the case of Amendment 3, our law enforcement partners have expressed very serious concerns about what it might mean for our state.”

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), for his part, was asked whether Trump’s endorsement of the measure could set the stage for Republicans to seize the cannabis issue and potentially move on federal reform proposals in the lame duck session following the election.

“I don’t think—you know, whether it’s President Trump or anybody else—people are looking at it from a partisan lens,” he said.

The congressman added that the prospect of adult-use legalization in Florida could “create some issues,” but he feels the legislature would “work to kind of fix that in an implementing bill” if voters approve the ballot measure.

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“I think the president talked to that, but I don’t think it’s a political issue now in terms of Republicans and Democrats,” Donalds said, referring to Trump’s call for lawmakers to restrict public cannabis smoking. “I think it’s more about how the residents view cannabis use—not just in Florida but it’s actually been a trend throughout the country.”

The congressman said he’s listened to what Trump has said about the amendment, as well as comments from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who’s been campaigning against the initiative.

“This thing, it’s going to be worked out. The voters are going to make a decision here,” he said. “Have I made a personal decision on what I’m doing yet? No. I anticipate I will in the future.”

Pressed on his concerns with the proposal, Donalds said, “if there’s any concerns in the state, it definitely will be around use in public areas and stuff like that,” echoing a talking point DeSantis has repeatedly raised and that the cannabis campaign has challenged.

“I’m just being blunt, no pun intended. People don’t want to walk around the streets smelling marijuana smoke. They simply don’t want that,” the congressman said.

“At the same time, they do recognize that there are veterans and seniors who do use it for medicinal purposes when they don’t want to use narcotics, opioids etc., and so it’s something where I think the voters are really going to decide,” Donalds added. “But there are some general use issues that I think Florida is going to address.”

To the congressman’s point about the legislature’s role in passing implementing legislation, Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried has some ideas about what she’d like to see in a regulatory framework. The former state agriculture commissioner endorsed Amendment 3 on Tuesday, while discussing various proposals she hopes will be incorporated in an adult-use program if it passes.

“This is about freedom. This is about [the] opportunity to make sure that we go back to the libertarian state that we always have been,” Fried told The Ledger, drawing from a stump speech refrain from Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) to “mind your own business.”

We need to break up vertical integration, issue more licenses, expunge records of simple possession charges, release anyone sitting in jail for possession, allow hemp industry to participate, revenue from sales to the black/brown communities & education, & employee protections

— Nikki Fried (@NikkiFried) September 17, 2024

While several of her proposed regulations would almost certain face an uphill battle if Republicans maintain control of the legislature, especially with DeSantis still in office, she and the governor do seem to align on one issue: They’re both concerned about the possibility of a monopolized industry.

Fried said that the state’s current vertically integrated system for medical cannabis, requiring licensees to control their business from seed to sale, should be overhauled to ensure that the marketplace is more competitive. And she also vaguely described her interest in seeing the hemp industry folded into the marijuana program.

Part of my support is opening up licenses, breaking up vertical integration, and allowing the hemp market participate. A true open market

— Nikki Fried (@NikkiFried) September 17, 2024

DeSantis, for his part, hasn’t proposed specific legislative solutions despite his shared concerns and has instead focused on making the case that the campaign’s top financial backer, the multi-state cannabis operator Trulieve, stands to disproportionately benefit from the reform as the initiative is currently drafted.

Fried, whose party also formally endorsed Amendment 3 last week, said that lawmakers should pass implementing legislation that provides for automatic expungements of past convictions for possession of up to 20 grams of marijuana and resentencing for those actively incarcerated over the offense. She also said that tax revenue from legal sales should be allocated to support Black communities most harmed under criminalization, as well as public education.

The former state-elected official—who led a lawsuit against the Biden administration of the federal ban on gun ownership by medical cannabis patients—separately cautioned against passing a law with added restrictions such as bans home grow or smokeable cannabis.

Recognizing that the conservative legislature as its currently composed is unlikely to get behind the framework she’s proposing, Fried said that’s why it’s incumbent on voters to elect more Democrats this November.

“If in fact, we are able to break the supermajorities in the legislature and get more Democrats elected, there are enough Republicans in the legislature who are scared to speak up and speak out against leadership to side with Democrats to make sure the amendments are property executed,” she said. “But that takes voters getting out to the ballot box.”

Meanwhile, a pair of Republican and Democratic Florida senators recently teamed up to promote the state marijuana legalization initiative, making a joint appearance in a new ad for the campaign as DeSantis continues to rally against the measure, claiming it would benefit a corporate “weed cartel.”

Sen. Joe Gruters (R), the former chair of the Florida Republican Party, and Sen. Shevrin Jones (D) stood side-by-side in the ad for Smart & Safe Florida, acknowledging that while they “don’t agree on much—hardly anything” and would be each voting for their respective party’s presidential nominee, they “do agree on this: Amendment 3 is good for Florida.”

The ad also comes amid another series of endorsements, including from the Young Republicans of Florida and the Florida Senate Democratic Caucus—another show of bipartisan unity around the reform.

While polling has also consistently demonstrated that the ballot measure enjoys majority support from Democrats and Republicans alike—and despite the fact that the 2024 GOP nominee has endorsed it as well—Florida’s governor has not relented in his crusade to defeat it.

Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers and Gruters, the GOP state senator, also met with Trump ahead of his endorsement of Amendment 3, as well as federal rescheduling and industry banking access.

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Trump said medical marijuana has been “absolutely amazing” for patients, and that the Florida legalization initiative is “going to be very good” for the state after it passes, which he expects to happen.

“You take a look at the numbers, it’s been very hard to beat it,” Trump said, referencing polling for marijuana legalization ballot measures. “So I think it’ll generally pass, but you want to do it in a safe way.”

Separately, longtime ally and GOP political operative Roger Stone, who is also a Florida resident and supports the legalization proposal, separately told Marijuana Moment that if Trump did ultimately endorse the measure it would “guarantee victory.”

Meanwhile, following Trump’s recent announcement of support for the cannabis legalization ballot measure in Florida, the campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, has started working to remind voters that while in office, Trump “took marijuana reform backwards.”

In a memo from a senior campaign spokesperson, the Harris campaign accused Trump of “brazen flip flops” on cannabis. The Democratic campaign says it’s one of the Republican former president’s “several bewildering ‘policy proposals’ that deserve real scrutiny.”

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), who is sponsoring a bill to federally legalize marijuana called the States Reform Act, separately said that while she hoped Trump would back the Biden administration’s rescheduling move, she also said part of the reason Republicans in Congress have declined to embrace marijuana policy change is because they’re “afraid of it.”

Trump also recently went after Harris over her prosecutorial record on marijuana, claiming that she put “thousands and thousands of Black people in jail” for cannabis offenses—but the full record of her time in office is more nuanced.

Trump’s line of attack, while misleading, was nonetheless notable in the sense that the GOP presidential nominee implied that he disagrees with criminalizing people over marijuana and is moving to leverage the idea that Harris played a role in racially disproportionate mass incarceration.

Meanwhile, a Democratic congresswoman who recently said she was on the fence about whether she’d vote for the Florida legalization ballot initiative this November has officially given the measure her endorsement.

There’s been a mixed bag of feedback on Amendment 3 from members of Florida’s congressional delegation.

One pro-legalization GOP congressman, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), recently said he intends to vote against it, strictly because he feels the reform should be enacted statutorily, rather than as a constitutional amendment that would prove more challenging to amend.

On the other hand, Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, predicted earlier this year that the measure will pass.

Separately, another recent survey from the Florida Chamber of Commerce, which is against the cannabis initiative, found that 59 percent of likely voters in the state back Amendment 3.

A separate poll from the James Madison Institute (JMI) showed 64 percent of likely voters in Florida are in favor of the legalization proposal.

Harris And Trump Supporters Hold Mixed Opinions On Increasing Marijuana Regulations, Poll Finds

Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.