Cannabis Ally Jared Polis Elected Governor of Colorado
[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]O[/dropcap]n Tuesday, Colorado voters elected Jared Polis as governor, making him the first openly gay governor in the United States, the first Jewish governor of Colorado and a dedicated cannabis ally. Polis is consistently ranked as one of the most cannabis-friendly lawmakers in the United States government.
Polis cruised his way into office with a comfortable 52 percent of the vote, while the runner-up, Republican Walker Stapleton, was only able to secure about 45 percent of the vote.
“Colorado is a state that values diversity,” Polis told The Denver Post prior to the election results. “We’re willing to elect people that are going to do a good job for our state regardless of their background . . . I think it’s exciting to show how far the LGBTQ community has come that it doesn’t stand in the way of being elected to the highest office in the state.”
Polis is clearly a fan of legal cannabis—and perhaps one of the American lawmakers that views cannabis most favorably. Forbes ranked Polis as the number one congressman among the “Five Best U.S. House Representatives on Marijuana Policy.”
Tonight, we reaffirm what makes Colorado the amazing state that it is.
Here, we dream, we dare, and we do. We embrace big ideas and we work sun-up to sundown to make them realities. We see the highest mountains and we climb them. We face the tough decisions and we solve them. pic.twitter.com/s5TgypKQs5
— Jared Polis (@PolisForCO) November 7, 2018
Polis endorsed the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act, he sponsored the McClintock-Polis Amendment (similar to the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer Amendment) and is one of four co-founders of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus.
In May, NORML endorsed Polis for Governor of Colorado, and heavily promoted him during the midterm election. In June, Polis won the Democratic Primary in Colorado. Polis’ embrace of cannabis was one of his main selling points, and as it turns out, was the right choice to make.
In other election news, cannabis-friendly Gavin Newsom easily won office as Governor of California, by nearly 20 percent, and cannabis industry insider Rep. Dana Rohrabacher lost his seat in Congress to Democrat Harley Rouda.
