Major Ag Groups within Oklahoma were a driving force in the success of the NO vote that prevailed in the statewide special ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana. Unofficial results show that all 77 counties voted no- with Oklahoma County the last of the counties that have ended up with the a no vote-with a narrow 36 vote lead for the “no”s with all of the County vote now in.
UPDATE- Statewide- with 100 percent of the precincts in , 349,121 have voted NO while 216,883 voted YES. That margin now stands at 61.68% of voters who have turned the question down versus 38.32% voting YES.
Oklahoma would have become the 22nd state to legalize adult use of cannabis and join conservative states like Montana and Missouri that have approved similar proposals in recent years. Many conservative states have also rejected the idea, including Arkansas, North Dakota and South Dakota last year.
Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt and many of the state’s GOP legislators, including nearly every Republican senator, opposed the idea. Former Republican Gov. Frank Keating, an ex-FBI agent, and Terri White, the former head of the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, led the “no” campaign.
Three of the major farm/ranch organizations banded together to call for a NO vote- Oklahoma Farm Bureau, American Farmers and Ranchers and the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association held a news conference with the state capitol being used as a backdrop a few days before Election Day to urge rural citizens to turn out in large numbers and vote no. Apparently, they did.
Oklahoma Farm Bureau President Rodd Moesel is very pleased with the strong message sent by voters across the state. He told Oklahoma Farm Report’s Ron Hays “we are just ecstatic that the voters of Oklahoma have responded and voted no” and he added “it was a unique situation – the only issue on the ballot and it gave voters a chance to study the question before they voted” and clearly a significant number broke to the “NO” side.
Moesel added that the “YES” side had close to $5 million dollars to market their side while the Protect Our Kids coalition urging a NO vote on 820 had less than a quarter of a million dollars to urge voters to vote no.
You can listen to Rodd Moesel and Hays talk about the vote after AP had called the vote- saying the recreational marijuana push had failed. Click on the Listen Bar below to hear their full conversation.
The American Farmers & Ranchers were also a part of the ag coalition that joined with other non ag groups to urge a no vote- their President Scott Blubaugh responded to the Oklahoma Farm Report while still in San Francisco for the NFU Convention with this statement: “Today’s vote was a big victory for rural Oklahoma and the farmers, ranchers and families that live there. This vote clearly demonstrates the values that have been present in our organization from the very beginning. We were honored to join with other Oklahoma agriculture groups in the successful effort to defeat what would have been another great challenge for the rural areas of our state.”
Another of the Ag groups that came together to urge a NO vote across the state was the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association-their Executive VP Michael Kelsey sent us their reaction via text- “Oklahoma has strongly rejected recreational marijuana with rural Oklahoma leading an overwhelming “NO” vote. OCA’s membership approved strong policy against recreational marijuana in 2021 and then carried that policy into action Tuesday as a proud participant in a big coalition to defend our great state. March 7th was a great day for all of Oklahoma!”
