President Donald Trump’s a notorious teetotaller who despises the substances many Americans enjoy daily, which based on his track record looks to include cannabis. And while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell helped legalize CBD last year, he still steadfastly opposes weed. But both Trump and McConnell have one thing in common that could bode well for advocates: They’ll do almost anything to maintain a Republican majority in the Senate. And cannabis legalization—or the lack thereof—could prove pivotal in deciding the outcome of next year’s Colorado Senate race.

Those dynamics make embattled Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner the potential cannabis power broker in this Congress. By most accounts, he’s arguably the most vulnerable Republican senator on the ticket in 2020. While he opposed his state’s 2012 recreational marijuana ballot initiative, since then he’s sensed the tides turning and has become one of the louder Republicans on Capitol Hill advocating for normalization—under the “state’s rights” mantle; not the progressive “this is some antiquated racist BS” perspective—after voters of all stripes have voiced disdain for the failed War on Drugs.

Still, a myriad of cannabis bills – about 40 notable ones are floating around the 116th Congress alone – have sat untouched by Senate Republican leaders. But there seems to be a thawing in the party over the sticky green plant that millions of Americans now legally consume. And cannabis proponents wonder if GOP leaders may allow long stalled cannabis bills to move as a cynical ploy to try and keep Gardner in one of the few truly purple states left in the nation.

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