A Republican lawmaker who has built a reputation as one of the staunchest opponents of marijuana reform in Congress—and whose record includes ensuring that Washington, D.C. officials are blocked from legalizing recreational cannabis sales—may be at risk of being unseated in November due to redistricting in his state.
The Maryland House of Delegates on Monday approved a congressional redistricting proposal that would leave Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) especially vulnerable in the next election, according to analysts, giving Democrats an advantage in the state’s first congressional district for the first time since the last map was drawn in 2011.
Harris, the only GOP lawmaker in Maryland’s eight-member U.S. House delegation, has been a critical voice against D.C. autonomy on a number of issues, including marijuana reform. And as chair of the House Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies subcommittee, he’s been uniquely positioned to maintain that agenda.
The so-called Harris rider that’s been annually renewed in appropriations legislation covering Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) since 2014—the same year that District voters approved a ballot initiative to legalize cannabis for adult use. The provision prevents D.C. from using its local tax dollars to implement a system of regulated marijuana sales.
Though local legislators have attempted to find workarounds to give more adults access to cannabis (for example by expanding eligibility criteria for medical cannabis registrations), the congressional blockade has been a consistent source of frustration for residents and advocates, as well as Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) and Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC).
But now a pathway seems to be forming to oust the Republican legislator, with the Maryland House approving HB 488 to redraw the state’s congressional map in a way that political observers say would benefit Democratic candidates. The bill’s advancement came after a five-member gubernatorial advisory committee voted to recommend the redistricting plan, which now heads to the state Senate.
Harris has indicated he would file a legal challenge to the new map in court if the legislature ultimately enacts it.
Despite protests from local leaders and advocates, the Harris rider on cannabis in D.C. has made it into final appropriations legislation under Democratic and Republican control of Congress and the White House. The current FSGG bill with the rider passed the House earlier this month.
The language may ultimately be rendered moot, however, if the Trump administration moves forward with an order from the president to expeditiously reclassify cannabis as a Schedule III substance under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).
In a report published in 2024, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) said that while federal cannabis prohibition would still be the law of the land even if it’s rescheduled, the reform “would permit the District government, as a matter of local law, to authorize the commercial sale of recreational marijuana, establish market regulations, and levy marijuana taxes, among other policy options.”
There is a complication, however, because the congressional rider also stipulates that the District of Columbia can’t use funds to legalize or reduce penalties for “any tetrahydrocannabinols derivative.” But that term isn’t clearly defined in the rider or anywhere else in federal law.
Of course, it’s also the case that even if Harris were to be unseated, that wouldn’t guarantee that the policy he championed wouldn’t be taken up by another anti-cannabis member. But given his current influence within the Appropriations Committee, it could be a game-changer for advocates.
Beyond leading the charge to keep D.C. from legalizing marijuana sales, Harris has also vocally opposed other cannabis reforms in Congress.
For example, he’s pushed back against federal cannabis rescheduling, decried what he described as a “loophole” in the 2018 Farm Bill that legalized hemp and its derivatives and opposed allowing banks to work with state-legal marijuana businesses.
In December, the congressman argued that President Donald Trump doesn’t have the authority to unilaterally reschedule marijuana via executive order. But while lawmakers could overrule any administrative move to enact the reform, it would be a “heavy lift” in the Republican-controlled Congress, he acknowledged.
In 2024, he told Marijuana Moment “I don’t care” whether rolling back the Biden administration-initiated marijuana rescheduling process would hurt the Republican party under a Trump presidency, because he felt more strongly that the modest reform would endanger public health.
Harris has previously suggested that the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) “adamantly opposed” the rescheduling proposal—despite the fact that her agency officially concurred with the recommended policy change, as well as the Nora Volkow’s repeated public comments criticizing research barriers imposed by cannabis’s current Schedule I status.
Harris isn’t an island of prohibition on Capitol Hill, so the future of federal marijuana policy would likely remain murky even if he’s voted out of office in November. But if Democrats regain a majority in either chamber after the midterms, and Harris no longer occupies a leadership position in the appropriations process, it could embolden change in a meaningful way, particularly as it concerns D.C.
Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.
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