Beto O’Rourke again pledges to legalize pot if elected Texas governor

After President Joe Biden announced pardons Thursday for Americans convicted of “simple possession” of marijuana, Beto O’Rourke reiterated his pledge to legalize the drug if elected Texas governor.

The Democrat, who is challenging Gov. Greg Abbott this November, also said in a tweet that he would expunge the records of those arrested for marijuana possession.

O’Rourke has long pushed for the legalization of marijuana and even wrote a book about it. He says he doesn’t support the legalization of all drugs, and claims that he does have been proved false.

The former El Paso congressman has said legalizing marijuana would not only provide revenue for the state and economic opportunities for Texans, but also bring about criminal justice reform because Black and Hispanic residents are disproportionately jailed for and convicted of marijuana crimes.

“Right now we spend half a billion dollars a year locking people up for a substance that is legal in most of the rest of the country, most of the rest of the developed world,” O’Rourke said at a news conference in South Oak Cliff in April. “We also lose out on, conservatively speaking, half a billion dollars in tax revenue.”

When I’m governor, we will finally legalize marijuana in Texas and expunge the records of those arrested for marijuana possession. — Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) October 6, 2022

In May, Abbott said his position has not changed beyond what he’s proposed in the past — reducing the criminal penalty for marijuana possession to a Class C misdemeanor, but not legalizing the drug.

“Texas is not in the habit of taking criminal justice advice from the leader of the defund police party and someone who has overseen a criminal justice system run amuck [sic] with cashless bail and a revolving door for violent criminals,” Abbott spokeswoman Renae Eze said in a prepared statement. “The Governor of Texas can only pardon individuals who have been through the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles system with a recommendation for pardon.”

At an event in May, O’Rourke pointed out that Texans of all stripes use marijuana.

“Not only do Texans of every race, ethnicity and gender, use marijuana at the same rate,” he said, “but your big secret that I want to make sure we all hear out loud — Republicans use it just as much as Democrats.”

Since 2012, 19 states, Washington, D.C., and Guam have legalized marijuana for recreational use — something more than half of Texans have said they either support or strongly support, according to previous Dallas Morning News-University of Texas at Tyler polls.

And the numbers are even higher for medical use: 67% of those surveyed last month said they would either support or strongly support the legalization of marijuana in Texas to help treat illnesses. The Texas Legislature expanded the state’s medical marijuana program last year to include all forms of post-traumatic stress disorder and cancer.

But some legislators and governors, especially in red states, remain hesitant to legalize the drug.

Rhode Island became the 19th state to fully legalize marijuana in May, and more states, including Missouri and South Dakota, will vote on whether to legalize recreational use this November. Oklahoma’s referendum was delayed until at least 2023.

On Thursday, Biden also called on governors to issue similar pardons for those convicted of state marijuana offenses, which reflect the vast majority of marijuana possession cases.

Political writer Gromer Jeffers Jr. and Washington correspondent Emily Caldwell contributed to this report.