*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).
Although the much-anticipated blue wave wasn't the tsunami Democrats had hoped for, the Party still managed to wrestle the House from Republican control and score victories in gubernatorial races. As expected, Republicans maintained their grip on the Senate. Read below for more on Election Night.
It's midterms day in America! After a whopping 36 million people voted early, many are predicting record voter turnout for this midterms election. Rapper Fat Joe joins Cheddar to talk about his efforts to get young voters to the polls as part of MTVs '+1 The Vote' campaign. And, we dig into reports that Amazon is splitting its second headquarters, also known as HQ2, between two different cities.
Adam Cancryn, healthcare reporter at Politico, said the Republicans have hinted at attempting to dismantle the ACA even if they lose the House. That won't be easy.
As Americans head to the polls for the 2018 midterm election, some are concerned about outside actors hacking voting systems, which would be different from the misinformation campaigns that proliferated on social media in 2016. Rob Marvin, associate features editor at PC Mag, explains the different levels of vulnerabilities.
No matter how different Congress may look after Tuesday's vote, the markets ー especially the S&P ー will be up a year from now, Securities America investment adviser John Grace told Cheddar Tuesday.
The bitter midterm election season is coming down ー as it always does ー to who turns out to vote. With control of both chambers of Congress and dozens of statehouses up for grabs on Tuesday, and a polarizing president at the center of it all, the 2018 midterm election will be seen as one of the most consequential in modern U.S. history.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know.
South Florida's agriculture community is in tremendous economic pain. The open markets and opportunities afforded to Mexico in the NAFTA era steadily put farmers out of business in the region of pristine farmland between Miami and the Florida Keys. J.D. Durkin writes about meeting with those struggling farmers as news of a would-be pipe bomber dominated the news cycle just miles away.
With just a day remaining until Election Day, the president of EMILY's List is feeling confident that the millions of dollars her organization spent on pro-choice Democratic women running for office will pay off, thanks to a strong early voting turnout. "Often in midterm elections, we do see a bigger drop-off by women voters, particularly younger women voters, in midterms," Stephanie Schriock said Monday in an interview on Cheddar. "I'm not seeing any of that drop-off."
Robin Koval, CEO and president of the Truth Initiative, believes that until government effectively regulates the sale of e-cigarettes, teenagers will continue to get addicted to nicotine. And that makes popular vape brands like JUUL no different from Big Tobacco, in her mind.
Load More