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US president Joe Biden stepping down and debate about his potential replacement currently dominate headlines about the November elections in the country. However, down-ballot races across many states could have a significant impact on the future of vaping, nicotine alternatives and cannabis in the country. After all, what happens at the federal level is often prologued by similar activity at the state level.
As a consequence, the 11 state governorship races could be of significant importance. These include the states of Delaware, Indiana, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia. (Two US territories – Puerto Rico and American Samoa – are also having governorship contests in November, but they are outside the scope of this article.)
Out of the 11 states, five are still waiting on the results of at least one primary – TobaccoIntelligence will review these states closer to the election – with the remaining six having selected a single Republican and Democratic candidate to take part in the gubernatorial competition.
In those six – Indiana, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Utah and West Virginia – two feature challengers taking on sitting Republican governors in Republican states, three more take place in heavily Republican states with expected victories for the Republican nominees and one – deemed the most important governor’s race of 2024 – is seemingly a toss-up.
Vaping, tobacco and cannabis may not be campaign-winning issues on their own. But all three will feature in the election, and it is important to note where the candidates stand on them in these contests.
Montana
In Montana, sitting governor Greg Gianforte is expected to see off the challenge from Democrat Ryan Busse in the very Republican state. Gianforte does not specifically mention tobacco, cannabis or vaping on his election website. However, his voting record suggests he is a “low government interference” type Republican.
He signed Montana’s recreational cannabis legalisation bill into law. He also signed a bill prohibiting local authorities from implementing bans on flavoured vaping products under “stopping government overreach” reasoning.
He also supported a cap on premium cigar taxes – though many politicians support the product they stereotypically would use, without it necessarily translating into support for any other tobacco or nicotine alternative product.
In comparison, Busse highlights that his nominated Democratic running mate for lieutenant governor, Ralph Graybill, “successfully took on Big Tobacco to prevent the marketing of vaping products to kids” while serving as chief legal counsel to former Montana governor Steve Bullock. This presumably is a reference to Bullock’s efforts to implement a state-wide flavour ban for vaping products that ran into legal challenges.
Utah
Similarly in Utah, incumbent Republican governor Spencer Cox is also likely to be re-elected in the Republican state. However, that is where the similarities end. Cox is a member of the Board of Directors for the anti-tobacco campaigning organisation Truth Initiative. He has already signed into law a bill prohibiting the sale of flavoured vaping products in the state. His record on cannabis is more mixed, signing some laws strengthening protections for medical cannabis users but criticising attempts to legalise for recreational purposes or pardon those convicted for simple possession.
His Democratic opponent sponsored bills in the Utah state senate that would tighten restrictions such as raising minimum ages for vaping products and voted in support of the vaping flavour ban.
King also has a mixed record on cannabis – most recently voting to expand the conditions for which doctors could recommend cannabis, but previously voting against authorising medical cannabis in the state in 2018.
In three other states – Indiana, North Dakota and West Virginia – the Republican nominee is likely to be the eventual victor.
Indiana
For the contest in Indiana, Mike Braun is the Republican nominee – having previously served as a federal senator for the state. From his time there, it appears he would be pro-laissez-faire in terms of alternative tobacco products and, likely, cannabis.
Braun criticised New York Democratic senator Chuck Schumer when the latter called nicotine pouches the next big youth public health epidemic, saying he did not like the government banning stuff. However, he did say the public health consideration should be examined. He separately said cannabis legalisation was likely inevitable.
Beyond that, he opposed all of Democratic president Joe Biden’s nominations for public health positions, including Xavier Becerra as secretary of health and human services and Vivek Murthy as surgeon general.
Former Republican Jennifer McCormick is running as a Democrat after falling out with the Republican Party during her tenure as superintendent of public instruction over a lack of transparency and accountability within the party. McCormick said she would support the legalisation of medical cannabis in the state – one of the few remaining US holdouts in this regard – as well as looking into recreational legalisation or decriminalisation in the state.
McCormick also said she would tackle health issues, such as smoking, in order to decrease healthcare expenditures and end health inequality – though she does not provide specific proposed actions on her site. However, it does not look like McCormick will do so through the promotion of harm-reduction policies, as she criticised the Republican Party for decreasing taxes on vaping products.
Further – during her tenure in charge of Indiana’s public schools – she pushed for measures to combat youth vaping, due to deaths allegedly linked to vaping and the potential for it to lead to smoking.
North Dakota
In North Dakota, Republican nominee Kelly Armstrong is considered likely to win. Armstrong does not mention tobacco, vaping or cannabis as one of his priorities at this time. He previously served as one of North Dakota’s members of the federal House of Representatives. While there he was a strong supporter of legislation requiring age identification for online purchases of vaping products.
However, he said that, looking at the data, measures such as increased age-verification techniques and increasing the minimum age for purchasing tobacco products were significantly better solutions to youth vaping issues than banning flavours. He added that he would prefer not to have a hodgepodge of different laws in different areas and that he tried to be informed by data in such decisions.
Armstrong was also a co-sponsor of the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act that would have aided cannabis companies in obtaining banking services and also supported other pro-cannabis, such as the Medical Marijuana Research Act.
His opponent, Merrill Piepkorn, is a senator in North Dakota’s state legislature. Piepkorn does not specify any positions on issues such as vaping, alternative nicotine products or cannabis. However, he did vote for the bill establishing medical cannabis in the state.
West Virginia
And in West Virginia, Republican Patrick Morrisey, the current attorney general for the state, is expected to triumph in his bid to become governor. He makes no policy claims regarding cannabis, nicotine alternatives or vaping. Though, as attorney general, Morrisey pursued a lawsuit against Juul for underage marketing practices that was eventually settled for $7.9m.
Morrisey, formerly specialising in healthcare matters as an attorney, has also spoken out against youth vaping – claiming there is a lack of transparency about ingredients in the e-cigarette products illicitly being marketing to children and that many could contain damaging substances such as fentanyl.
Running against him is Steve Williams – the mayor of Huntington, West Virginia. Williams has not yet listed any priorities or positions on his governorship campaign website. His time as mayor does not reveal much regarding any relevant policy.
The closest indication is that he was concerned with youth vaping and seemingly equated it with tobacco use in general – promising to translate success in addressing the opioid epidemic in the city to ending tobacco addiction.
North Carolina
Finally, there is one contest with no clear frontrunner. In North Carolina, Democrat Roy Cooper is prevented from running again by term limits. Josh Stein is his Democratic Party replacement. The race is considered one of the most important, as Republicans already hold both chambers in the legislative branch and want to secure the executive branch of the state as well.
Similar to the situation in West Virginia, Stein is the current state attorney general and spearheaded efforts to sue Juul over marketing practices – settling for a total of $47.8m in this case.
As part of the settlement, which Stein said was the first in the US, Juul could not make any comparative claims about the health of vaping versus smoking conventional cigarettes. Stein called vaping dangerous and said nicotine was poisoning childrens’ brains, suggesting he would support further restrictions on vaping if elected.
Further supporting this are calls from Stein for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to create national regulations on flavours while also pursuing additional investigations into other vaping companies, such as Puff Bar.
Outside vaping, Stein is in favour of liberalising laws on cannabis – including expanding medical access and ending prohibition for adult recreational use.
His opponent is the current Republican lieutenant governor, Mark Robinson. Robinson is a supporter of the state’s tobacco industry, and there is some thought this may prove to be influential in a state where the rural economy is still very much dependent on the success of tobacco growing – and therefore, tobacco products.
No specific positions on vaping have been found for Robinson. However, he is a supporter of free enterprise and the right to private property. Despite this, he is an opponent of both medical and recreational cannabis.
– Freddie Dawson TobaccoIntelligence staff
Map: mapchart.net
