NORML Releases 2020 Governors Scorecard – How did Your Governor Do?
Public support of the U.S. cannabis industry is at an all-time high, and so is the number of states with some form of legal cannabis legislation on the books. But not all states are created equal, and even some legal states are governed by politicians who don’t support the cause. At the same time, some governors who don’t oversee legal states are friends to the cannabis industry. So, where does your governor stand?
The cannabis activist organization, NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) has the answer. NORML just announced its 2020 Governors Scorecard, which rates each state governor on a scale from ‘A’ to ‘F.’ Some of their findings are exactly what you would expect, such as Democrat governors ranking higher on average than Republican governors. But in the report, you’ll also find a Republican with a B grade and two Democrats with D grades.
Photo Credit: NORML.org
Before we get to all the rankings, here are some interesting facts from the report:
- 31% of Republican governors received a failing grade.
- 38% of Democrat governors received a grade of ‘A.’
- No Republican governors are on record supporting adult-use cannabis.
- 66% of the public (including the majority of all political leanings) favor adult-use legalization.
- NORML only gave one governor, JB Pritzker (D) of Illinois, an ‘A+’ rating.
- Governors David Ige of Hawaii and Roy Cooper of North Carolina are the two Democrats who were given grades of ‘D+’ and ‘D’ respectively.
- The Republican governor with the highest grade (‘B-‘) was Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma.
Here are the rankings from NORML’s report:
| State | Governor (Party) | Grade |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Kay Ivey (R) | D |
| Alaska | Mike Dunleavy (R) | C |
| Arizona | Doug Ducey (R) | D |
| Arkansas | Asa Hutchinson (R) | D |
| California | Gavin Newsom (D) | B |
| Colorado | Jared Polis (D) | A |
| Connecticut | Ned Lamont (D) | B- |
| Delaware | John Carney (D) | B- |
| Florida | Ron DeSantis (R) | C- |
| Georgia | Brian Kemp (R) | C- |
| Hawaii | David Ige (D) | D+ |
| Idaho | Brad Little (R) | F |
| Illinois | JB Pritzker (D) | A+ |
| Indiana | Eric Holcomb (R) | F |
| Iowa | Kim Reynolds (R) | D- |
| Kansas | Laura Kelly (D) | B- |
| Kentucky | Andy Beshear (D) | B- |
| Louisiana | John Bel Edwards (D) | C- |
| Maine | Janet Mills (D) | A- |
| Maryland | Larry Hogan (R) | C |
| Massachusetts | Charlie Baker (R) | C |
| Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer (D) | B+ |
| Minnesota | Tim Walz (D) | B+ |
| Mississippi | Tate Reeves (R) | D |
| Missouri | Mike Parson (R) | C |
| Montana | Steve Bullock (D) | C+ |
| Nebraska | Pete Ricketts (R) | F |
| Nevada | Steve Sisolak (D) | A |
| New Hampshire | Chris Sununu (R) | D+ |
| New Jersey | Phil Murphy (D) | A- |
| New Mexico | Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) | A |
| New York | Andrew Cuomo (D) | A- |
| North Carolina | Roy Cooper (D) | D |
| North Dakota | Doug Burgum (R) | C+ |
| Ohio | Mike DeWine (R) | F |
| Oklahoma | Kevin Stitt (R) | B- |
| Oregon | Kate Brown (D) | A |
| Pennsylvania | Tom Wolf (D) | B+ |
| Rhode Island | Gina Raimondo (D) | B- |
| South Carolina | Henry McMaster (R) | F |
| South Dakota | Kristi Noem (R) | F |
| Tennessee | Bill Lee (R) | F |
| Texas | Greg Abbott (R) | D |
| Utah | Gary Herbert (R) | C- |
| Vermont | Phil Scott (R) | C |
| Virginia | Ralph Northam (D) | B+ |
| Washington | Jay Inslee (D) | A |
| West Virginia | Jim Justice (R) | D |
| Wisconsin | Tony Evers (D) | B+ |
| Wyoming | Mark Gordon (R) | F |
