COLUMBIA, Mo. — Down-ballot initiatives, including three medical marijuana proposals, could help boost voter turnout for Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill in her fight against Republican challenger Josh Hawley to represent Missouri in the Senate.
McCaskill, a moderate, needs young people and progressive voters next week to drive up her margins of victory in Missouri’s urban centers in case she doesn’t win enough support from rural areas to beat Hawley, the state’s attorney general. Having pot on the ballot may just get her over the line, according to some students in the state.
Kayla Everett, University of Missouri College Democrats president and vice president of Young Democrats of Missouri, suspected the incorporation of the pot initiatives would boost young voter turnout because it is a popular issue that “has a direct, easily-felt impact on their daily lives.”
While enthusiasm among Democrats on her Columbia, Mo., campus was lower than during a presidential election year, Everett said students had been “responsive” to voter registration efforts and had “expressed a desire to learn more about ballot initiatives.”
“Which is something I haven’t seen before,” she said.
Everett’s comments are in line with polling research that finds marijuana initiatives add an electoral advantage for Democrats. Exit polling data from 2012 in Colorado and Washington demonstrated a correlation between those who supported legalization measures and former President Barack Obama, the Brookings Institution reported in 2016.
But Maxx Cook, Everett’s Republican counterpart at Mizzou, suggested there might not be a partisan edge for Democrats when it comes to who backs the three initiatives on the ballot this year. Amendment 2, Amendment 3, and Proposition C differ when it comes to how much tax revenue they would generate and how that money would be spent, but all would allow the use of marijuana for medical reasons.
“Republicans are actually starting to hop on board with medical marijuana, so while one could argue these three initiatives were meant, in part, to drive out Democratic-leaning voters, I don’t think that’s the actual effect,” Cook said.
Matias Mayesh, a College Republican at Washington University in St. Louis, predicted that the initiatives might also “trigger more conservatives to come out against it.”
Arik Wolk, vice president of WashU’s College Democrats, said while there had been interest in the pot initiatives on his campus, there had been “a lot more activity” around another ballot inclusion that has nothing to do with marijuana: Amendment 1 by the “Clean Missouri” campaign.
The group’s proposed ethics reforms would strengthen transparency laws, campaign finance and lobbying regulations, and anti-gerrymandering measures. Wolk said the movement gained traction after Missouri’s former Republican Gov. Eric Greitens was embroiled in a sex scandal.
The McCaskill-Hawley race, a tossup, is one of the most closely watched contests this 2018 midterm cycle. A Fox News poll released Wednesday had the pair in a dead heat.
McCaskill, acknowledging that every vote will matter for her on Election Day, addressed criticism of her moderate record in Columbia Friday during an event at a trendy pizza joint near Mizzou’s campus.
“Sometimes I get chewed on a little bit in Columbia for that, sometimes there are folks in Columbia that are disappointed that I am not afraid to break with my party when I think it’s the right thing to do for Missouri,” she said, touting her independence in the Senate and work across the political aisle.
With or without the initiatives, “CoMo for Progress” organizers Rebecca Shaw and Kate Canterbury believe even self-identified progressives will support McCaskill if they vote on Nov. 6.
“Many progressives feel that she is not the candidate they would choose but they prefer her over Attorney General Hawley, who many feel is unqualified,” the duo said in a statement. “As a senator, she reflects the state she represents.”
