Medical marijuana may not have passed as a constitutional amendment, but supporters say the measure was more popular than past governors.

United For Care championed Amendment 2. The ballot measure would have allowed the sale of cannabis for certain medical conditions like cancer and Parkinson’s disease. The amendment fell short of the 60% support it needed to pass – but still garnered 57.6 percent of the vote.

Ben Pollara, the campaign manager for United for Care, tweeted two days after the election that medical marijuana is more popular than winning Florida governor’s. Pollara claimed:

    "#YesOn2 got a higher % of the vote than the last 6 #flgov including @JebBush in his 2002 landslide #tallyorbust #2016."

PolitiFact Florida rated the claim for its truthfulness. Reporter Joshua Gillin said the claim rates MOSTLY TRUE. According to Gillin, history backs up Pollara’s tweet -- for the most part.

“We looked back to the six governors that had been elected. That goes all the way back to Bob Graham. There was a little bit of a hiccup because in 1982, (Graham) got over 64 percent of the vote,” Gillin said.

There’s another hiccup with the claim. The tweet includes the hashtag “flgov”, which usually refers to the gubernatorial campaign. It’s also used to denote any tweet about a governor, too. In this case, Pollara could be referring to the last six governors or the last six gubernatorial elections.

According to Pollara, he meant to refer to the last six gubernatorial elections, going back to Lawton Chiles’ win in 1994. In that case, the claim checks out. Because of those facts, PolitiFact rated the claim MOSTLY TRUE.

SOURCES: MEDICAL MARIJUANA AMENDMENT SUPPORT

  • PolitiFact's rating
  • Twitter, tweet from Ben Pollara, Nov. 6, 2014
  • Florida Department of State, Division of Elections, 1978-2014 election results, accessed Nov. 12, 2014
  • Interview with Ben Pollara, United for Care campaign manager, Nov. 13, 2014