Can marijuana save Claire McCaskill?
by Naomi Lim
| November 04, 2018 12:00 AM
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.
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