How Marijuana May Mobilize More Voters to Go to the Polls
*By Jacqueline Corba*
The nation may get greener on Tuesday night.
"There's a lot more senate and congressional races in which marijuana has become an issue than ever before," Cannabis Voter Project Director Sam D'Arcangelo told Cheddar's CannaBiz on Tuesday. "Marijuana now more than ever has become an issue that politicians are talking about."
The Cannabis Voter Project is an initiative launched by HeadCount, a nonpartisan and nonprofit group that registers voters at popular concerts and events that are attended largely by younger generations.
Four states could relax their policies on marijuana after this midterm election. Legalizing weed for recreational use is up for a vote in North Dakota and Michigan, and Missouri and Utah could legalize the drug for medicinal use.
"Cannabis has only really become an important issue for a lot of people in the last few years," D'Arcangelo said. "A lot more people are going to the polls with that in mind."
According to [Gallup](https://news.gallup.com/poll/243908/two-three-americans-support-legalizing-marijuana.aspx), 66 percent, or two-thirds, of Americans are in favor of legalization. Driving that all-time high of support are [millennials, in particular](http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/10/08/americans-support-marijuana-legalization/).
D'Arcangelo said if Michigan legalizes marijuana at the recreational level, it could signal a sea change for the entire Midwest, since policy reform often starts at the state level.
"Washington and Colorado legalized back in 2012 and then the dominoes fell, so to speak, across the West Coast," D'Arcangelo said. "So if it goes through in Michigan, which is looking like it probably will, the next places you want to look to are places like Illinois and Ohio where there's been a lot of talk about marijuana legalization at the state legislative level that hasn't gotten rolling in earnest."
Ahead of the midterms former Speaker of the House John Boehner penned an op-ed in The [Wall Street Journal](https://www.wsj.com/articles/washington-needs-to-legalize-cannabis-1541361855) calling for legalization at the federal level. Boehner [now serves on the board of cannabis producer Acreage Holdings](https://cheddar.com/videos/why-john-boehner-changed-his-mind-on-cannabis).
"When a guy like John Boehner ... is now coming around and publishing an op-ed like this, I think that's a pretty clear indicator that things are going to be changing pretty soon," D'Arcangelo said.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/how-pot-reform-could-drive-more-voters-to-polls).
The Cowboy State has become one of the world's top tax havens, according to the Pandora Papers, a trove of more than 11.9 million documents obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and The Washington Post. The papers reveal, among other things, how ultra-wealthy people from around the world move money into the U.S., invest, and spend it under a shroud of secrecy. Allison Tait, University of Richmond law professor, joined Cheddar to talk about Wyoming's laidback tax laws, their impact on the nation's economy, and provided some details on the financial arrangement known as the "cowboy cocktail."
Carlo and Baker preview President Biden's address to the nation as Omicron becomes the new dominant Covid strain. Plus, Trump gets booed for getting his booster and the White House gets a new puppy.
China and Russia are saying they want to work closer together in different areas after a recent call between Presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin. What are the implications of a close partnership between Beijing and Moscow? Cheddar News breaks things down with expert Hagar Chemali.
Michele Schneider, Partner and Director of Trading Research & Education for MarketGauge.com, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where she says the spread of the Omicron variant and Jerome Powell's comments following the latest Fed decision are spooking investors heading into the weekend.
Carlo and Baker wrap up another week discussing the latest explosion in new Covid cases in the Northeast, President Biden's stalled agenda and more. Plus, Love, Hate, Ate featuring the question: why did movie dialogue get so hard to understand?
Since July 2021, families with children have received monthly payments from the federal government as part of the expanded child tax credit, a policy that may be expiring this month. Megan Curran, policy director at the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University, joined Cheddar News to discuss.
During the pandemic, student loan debt repayment was put on pause amid an unprecedented crisis. However, on February 1, 2022, the schedule is set to resume, and currently it looks as though the Biden administration has no plans to extend it. Cody Hounanian, the executive director of the Student Debt Crisis Center, spoke to Cheddar about why he believes the loan collection pause needs to at least be extended as borrowers are still struggling with the resurgent pandemic and inflation. "There's really no good economic or policy or political reason as far as why they're focused on getting payments started now," Hounanian said. "We surveyed 33,000 people with student loans last month. Nine out of 10 told us that they are not ready to resume payments."
As the 2022 midterm elections fast approach, here are some politicians Americans should be on the lookout for. Democratic Massachusetts state senator Sonia Chang-Diaz, who was the first Latina and Asian American woman to be elected to the state's senate, now has her eye on the governorship with Republican Charlie Baker leaving. New Jersey GOP candidate for Congress, Billy Prempeh also bears watching, and while Boston's newest mayor, Democrat Michelle Wu, was already sworn in last month, all eyes will be on Beantown as the first woman and first person of color to hold the office tries to usher in a new era for the city.
