Texas House Candidate Smokes Marijuana While Calling For Legalization In New Campaign Ad

A Democratic candidate for the Texas House of Representatives is making waves after becoming the latest political office-seeker to smoke cannabis on camera in a campaign ad—and the first to smoke from a joint and a bong—while advocating for legalization.

Sally Duval, who is running against incumbent Rep. Carrie Isaac (R) to represent Texas’s 73rd district, released the ad on Monday, lighting up a joint as she discussed how current state laws permitting hemp but banning marijuana have created a “confusing and unclear” regulatory environment for the state.

“While marijuana remains illegal for most Texans, hemp products that can get you high—like delta-8, delta-9 and THC-A are being sold at more than 7,000 retailers statewide,” she said, adding that law enforcement lacks the testing resources to distinguish between the cannabis cousins, yet police continue to “arrest people every day for marijuana possession.”

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) “wants to both regulate and ban these products,” Duval said. “It doesn’t take a genius to figure out you can’t do both of these things.”

“Fortunately, we don’t have to choose between safety and legalization,” she said. “We can and should have both—but it’s going to take leaders who know enough and care enough to do what’s right.”

Duval said her opponent does not meet that standard, “which is a real shame.”

“Not only will legalization and regulation helps support our small farmers and medically complex Texans, but the tax revenue could be used to help fund education, public health and mental health services,” she said before taking a hit from a bong. “So here’s the bottom line: Texans should have the freedom to consume these products if they want to.”

“My name is Sally Duval, and I believe it’s high time for change in Texas,” she said after smoking the bong and coughing through the end of the ad.

Duval’s campaign site says that “Texas should move forward quickly by learning from the mistakes and successes of other states. A healthy cannabis regulatory regime should focus on some core values.”

That includes:

Cannabis should not be regulated more heavily than other products unless there is a valid scientific, medical, or public safety reason to do so.
The regime should promote public health and safety while creating economic opportunity for as many Texans as possible.
Regulations and taxation should accomplish a clear goal without economically burdening the industry ⎯ or patients.

“Make Texas competitive in the industry nationally both for research and commerce,” it says.

My name is Sally Duval, and I’m running for Texas House of Representatives, and it’s HIGH time for a change. If you agree that we need leaders who will ensure that Texans have access to safe, tested marijuana products, chip in today: https://t.co/r25fbUhVIA pic.twitter.com/xFeYVBNELg

— Sally Duval for TX House Dist 73 (@SallyForTexas) September 9, 2024

The ad was released just days after another poll found that a strong bipartisan majority of Texas voters support decriminalizing marijuana, and more people say they want to reduce restrictions on cannabis than say the same about guns, gambling and abortion in the Lone Star state.

Several Texas cities will be deciding on local marijuana decriminalization initiatives at the ballot this November. Most recently, lawmakers in Lockhart officially placed the reform on the ballot—reaching a compromise with activists after the city attorney attempted to revise the proposal in a way that supporters worried would face legal challenges and potentially upend the reform.

Voters in the Texas cities of Dallas and Bastrop will also decide on local marijuana decriminalization initiatives this fall.

Duval is not the first political candidate to openly consume cannabis in a campaign ad to underscore their support for reform.

In 2022, a candidate who sought to represent Louisiana in the U.S. Senate released a campaign ad that similarly put marijuana front and center. Democrat Gary Chambers sat in an armchair in a field smoking a cannabis blunt and listed statistics about the harms of criminalization.

The ad was titled “37 Seconds,” a reference to a research finding that police in the U.S. make a marijuana-related arrest every 37 seconds on average.

Anthony Clark, an Illinois candidate who ran an unsuccessful primary challenge against a Democratic congressional incumbent in 2020, made waves after he smoked marijuana in a campaign ad while discussing his personal experience with cannabis and the need for federal reform. He also hosted what he called the “first-ever congressional weed party” in a campaign video.

Also that year, a Democratic candidate for a House seat to represent Oregon frequently discussed consuming and cultivating cannabis herself.

A sitting member of Congress has never publicly smoked marijuana, but several lawmakers have visited marijuana farms, companies and state-legal dispensaries. Rep. James Comer (R-KY) brought CBD oil products he uses to a committee hearing in 2019.

Washington State Gov. Jay Inslee (D) said in 2019 that while he doesn’t smoke marijuana, “I do grow it legally,” but a spokesperson later clarified that he was broadly referring to legal cultivation in the state.