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Back in 1992, then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton famously admitted he smoked weed, but qualified that he didn’t inhale.
Thirty-two years later, a New York congressional candidate is making her involvement in the cannabis industry central to her campaign.
Cannabis tax attorney Paula Collins is seeking the Democratic party nomination for New York’s 21st Congressional District in a longshot bid to unseat Rep. Elise Stefanik, the fourth-ranking Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Collins, a frequent guest columnist for NY Cannabis Insider, is realistic about the uphill nature of the fight she’s waging, she said. After announcing her campaign in mid-February, she is still building her campaign team as she traverses the enormous district for signatures to appear on the June primary ballot.
And if she’s successful in the primary, Collins will face a general election against a powerful, nationally known opponent in a district that went for Republicans by nine points in 2022, according to a Ballotpedia analysis.
However, Collins and political strategists working on her campaign say that her unique professional background, plans to focus on rural issues and dissatisfaction with Stefanik’s turn toward far-right extremism could prove to be a winning combination – if not this cycle, maybe in two or four years.
“My Republican opponent Elise Stefanik has been in office since 2014, and during that time we’ve seen more and more farms that have to go out of business,” Collins said. “I will say that there is the sense that the day of reckoning has come for the MAGA maniacs.”
NY Cannabis Insider reached out to Rep. Stefanik’s team via email requesting comment about the election, but didn’t receive a response.
As of now, Collins is facing one primary opponent for the Democratic primary election June 25: Steven Holden, an Army veteran who unsuccessfully ran against Republican Claudia Tenney for the NY-24 seat in 2022.
J.R. Patton, managing director of Democratic political consulting firm 1833 Group who is working on Collins’ campaign, said he’s confident in Collins’ chances in the primary — if she can gather enough signatures to get on the ballot.
With the April 4 deadline to return 1,250 petition signatures from registered Democrats in NY-21, Collins has been traveling the district, which spans 18 counties, and a larger land area than several states. Collins said she’s over halfway there, and is currently trying to enlist volunteers to help get her over the finish line on time.
If she makes it on the ballot, and wins the primary on June 25, Collins thinks her pro-cannabis positions will help her with Republican voters in the district.
Few Republicans in Congress publicly support cannabis legalization, and Fox News’ prime time shows – watched by an audience of 93% Republicans, according to a Pew study – still regularly feature Reefer Madness segments suggesting cannabis causes psychosis, and could lead to mass shootings.
But in a mostly rural district in which a large percentage of voters are connected to the farming industry, Collins said she thinks a more libertarian attitude toward cannabis will prevail, since farmers in the district have grown hemp and cannabis since long before nationwide hemp legalization and New York’s legalization of cannabis, Collins said.
“It’s kind of like the pro-choice issue, ‘keep your laws off of my body;’ in this case it’s, ‘keep your laws off my farm, and out of my weed,” Collins said. “It’s that independent choice that they think the government just needs to stay out of this.”
And there are many substantive policy concerns directly and indirectly related to cannabis that could have lasting effects on voters in NY-21, Collins said.
She noted that multiple unsuccessful federal bills to legalize cannabis have included excise taxes upwards of 13%, which, combined with New York’s state taxes, would put marijuana taxes at about 24% in the Empire State.
“I want to be in the room when those discussions happen,” Collins said. “I want to bring my knowledge and experience with small business owners … because the states are not going to repeal their taxes.”
The failure of the majority Republican House to pass another Farm Bill last year is another point Collins plans to elevate in her campaign. The 2018 Farm Bill famously legalized hemp and cannabinoids like CBD. That legislation has caused controversy in the years since, as it technically legalized intoxicating cannabinoids like THC, if it’s extracted from hemp plants.
The Farm Bill is typically renewed every five years, and Collins said it’s important to protect the cannabis-related rights the 2018 version created. However, there’s a lot more to the Farm Bill than cannabis issues, and these aspects are important in a heavily agricultural district.
For example, the Farm Bill includes a host of programs for the dairy industry, and directs how fees paid by dairy farms are spent. NY-21 includes three of the five New York counties with the most dairy farms – Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence.
Aside from cannabis issues, Collins intends to promote expanding rural broadband, which is severely lacking in parts of the district, she said.
While Collins and her strategy team don’t see her pro-cannabis stances as an obstacle, they recognize other hurdles that do exist. In a general election, Stefanik – who has held the seat since she was first elected in 2014 – would have a huge advantage when it comes to name recognition among voters.
Collins and her team plan to build a fundraising infrastructure that will be largely dependent on out-of-state Democratic donors, strategist Patton said. Meanwhile, Stefanik has an established fundraising operation, and has raised over $5.3 million so far for the campaign.
Stefanik also boasts decisive victories in all four elections since her initial 2014 win, never having received less than 55% of the voting share. In 2022, she won with nearly 60% of the vote.
Additionally, Collins is eligible to run for office in NY-21 because she owns property in the district, but she lives in New York City. Collins said she’s sensitive to the fact that locals may view her as a carpetbagger, but Patton said his experience suggests that concerns about residency rarely break through with voters in congressional district elections.
Patton said he thinks moods are shifting in districts like NY-21, which heavily voted for President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, before flipping to Trump the next two presidential elections. In a general election, Stefanik could be seen as out of touch with an important chunk of the electorate.
“There’s a pocket of voters – no matter where you look, in every district in this country – that I think are former Reagan Republicans that are just fed up with the way the Republican party has gone,” Patton said. “Elise Stefanik has been a big part of that.”
If this dynamic doesn’t break through with voters this year, Collins said, she’ll try again in ‘26, ‘28, and possibly beyond.
“Here’s my strategy: I’m jumping in late, or am I really jumping in as an early bid for the midterms,” Collins said. “And if I’m still late for that, I’m early for the election after that.”