A political committee opposing a Florida marijuana legalization ballot initiative has received a half-million-dollar contribution from an organization that Elon Musk reportedly used to quietly support Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) before he dropped out of the 2024 presidential race. At the same time, the pro-legalization campaign has officially exceeded $100 million in total contributions.

The campaign finance news comes as a new poll again shows majority support for the cannabis measure—but not enough to meet a 60 percent requirement to pass the constitutional amendment.

Faithful & Strong Policies, Inc., a group run by Florida-based attorney Scott Wagner, made the $500,000 contribution to Keep Florida Clean, Inc. earlier this month, campaign filings show. Keep Florida Clean, which is led by DeSantis’s chief of staff James Uthmeier, is committed to defeating Amendment 3, the cannabis legalization measure, at the ballot.

While the donation pales in comparison to the more than $100 million dollars that the pro-legalization campaign Safe & Smart Florida has taken in this election cycle—primarily from the major marijuana company Trulieve—it nonetheless adds fuel to the opposition effort at a critical time, especially as the latest NBC 6 Florida poll raises questions about the initiative’s prospects of passage.

Musk’s relationship to this newest contribution from Faithful & Strong Policies committee is unclear. But The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the Tesla and Space X leader previously gave the organization $10 million, about half of which went to a PAC supporting DeSantis’s bid for the Republican presidential nomination.

The dark-money nonprofit Elon Musk used to funnel money to Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign just gave $500,000 to a group led by DeSantis’ chief of staff that is trying to defeat Amendment 3 – the citizen-led constitutional amendment that would legalize marijuana in Florida pic.twitter.com/fb8zjYGLLk

— Jason Garcia (@Jason_Garcia) October 11, 2024

Marijuana Moment reached out to Faithful & Strong Policies’s Wager, as well as Musk, for clarification, but representatives did not respond by the time of publication.

Several recent polls have indicated that Amendment 3 has enough support from voters across the aisle to pass, but the NBC 6 survey that was released on Sunday found that 58 percent of registered voters are in favor of the reform—two percentage points shy of what’s needed to be enacted under state law.

A majority of Democrats (72 percent) and independents (54 percent) said they back the policy change. A plurality of Republicans (49 percent) said the same. The survey further shows majority support across every region of the state surveyed, as well as those both voters under and over 50 years old.

The poll involved interviews with 625 people from October 1-4, with a +/-4 percentage point margin of error.

DeSantis has been working to rally opposition to the initiative for months. And he’s more recently faced criticism—and a lawsuit against the state—over a taxpayer-funded public service announcement distributed by the Florida Department of Transportation that, at one point, claims states that enact legalization see higher rates of impaired driving.

Meanwhile, the main corporate backer of the legalization initiative, the multi-state cannabis operator Trulieve, has filed a defamation suit against the state’s Republican Party, alleging it’s knowingly deceived voters about the proposed constitutional change known as Amendment 3.

Separately, the pro-legalization campaign, Smart & Safe Florida, released an ad of its own earlier this month, highlighting the fact that both major party presidential nominees and their running mates oppose criminalizing people over cannabis.

The ad—titled “We’re All Saying the Same Thing”—came just days after Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, reaffirmed her support for legalizing marijuana. That followed weeks of silence on the issue after she rose to the top of the ticket.

Smart & Safe Florida took that opportunity to compile a roundup of clips featuring Harris and running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D)—as well as former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee, and his VP pick Sen. JD Vance (R-OH)—voicing support for reform.

Trump, a Florida resident, is the only candidate who has specifically endorsed Amendment 3, but he’s historically taken a states’ rights position on legalization overall. Recently, he also came out in support of federal rescheduling and allowing marijuana industry access to the banking system.

Outside the presidential race, there’s been a mix of support and opposition for the Florida legalization amendment on both sides of the partisan spectrum.

For example, the former head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under then-President Bill Clinton recently urged Florida voters to reject the marijuana legalization initiative, arguing that it would create a “new addiction-for-profit industry” in the state.

Nikki Fried, the chair of the Florida Democratic Party and a former state agriculture commissioner, recently endorsed Amendment 3. And the chair also laid out a framework for regulating cannabis that she thinks the legislature should enact if voters do approve the reform. That involves automatic expungements for prior marijuana convictions, taking steps to mitigate the risk of monopolization in the industry and directing tax revenue to Black communities and education.

Meanwhile, two congressional Republicans representing Florida also recently weighed in on the state’s marijuana legalization initiative—with Rep. Laurel Lee (R-FL) predicting it will fail and Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) saying he remains undecided on the measure even after former President Donald Trump came out in support of it.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), for his part, has said he intends to vote against it, strictly because he feels the reform should be enacted statutorily, rather than as a constitutional amendment that would prove more challenging to amend.

On the other hand, Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, predicted earlier this year that the measure will pass.

A pair of Republican and Democratic Florida senators recently teamed up to promote the state marijuana legalization initiative, making a joint appearance in a new ad for the campaign as Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) continues to rally against the measure, claiming it would benefit a corporate “weed cartel.”

Sen. Joe Gruters (R), the former chair of the Florida Republican Party, and Sen. Shevrin Jones (D) stood side-by-side in the ad for Smart & Safe Florida, acknowledging that while they “don’t agree on much—hardly anything” and would be each voting for their respective party’s presidential nominee, they “do agree on this: Amendment 3 is good for Florida.”

While polling has also consistently demonstrated that the ballot measure enjoys majority support from Democrats and Republicans alike—and despite the fact that the 2024 GOP nominee, former President Donald Trump, has endorsed it as well—Florida’s governor has not relented in his crusade to defeat it.

Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers and Gruters, the GOP state senator, also met with Trump ahead of his endorsement of Amendment 3, as well as federal rescheduling and industry banking access.

Meanwhile, another recent survey from the Florida Chamber of Commerce, which is against the cannabis initiative, found that 59 percent of likely voters in the state back Amendment 3.

A separate poll from the James Madison Institute (JMI) showed 64 percent of likely voters in Florida are in favor of the legalization proposal.

Smart & Safe Florida also rolled out another series of new ads last month—including one calling out the hypocrisy of criminalizing cannabis while alcohol is legally available and another featuring a county sheriff making the case for ending marijuana prohibition.

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Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.