Another candidate for the US Senate tokes in a campaign ad in Indiana |

Kissing babies is out, smoking is in – at least in Indiana.

A new spot by Thomas McDermott, a Democrat running for the US Senate in Indiana, showcased the latest trend in political advertising.

McDermott is seated in a circle with several other people and can be seen on camera lighting a joint.

“Legalizing cannabis is important to this campaign,” McDermott said in the nearly two-minute ad.

The ad makes McDermott the second Democratic Senate candidate this election cycle to smoke weed on camera.

In January, Gary Chambers, who is running for the US Senate in Louisiana, caused a stir with a campaign video in which he smoked a blunt.

McDermott, who is challenging Republican Senator Todd Young in this year’s midterm election, posted the ad Wednesday, April 20.

“Even on Day #420, not many Senate candidates admit to smoking weed. I’m not most Senate candidates. I thought a lot about starting this video where I light up. It’s a personal and important issue to me and so many,” McDermott, the mayor of Hammond, Indiana, said in a tweet.

In the ad, McDermott sits in a circle with several other people in a backyard a mile from the state line in Illinois, where recreational cannabis is legal.

“All my adult life I’ve been surrounded by people – successful, creative people – who smoke weed and die to make it happen. We’re thrilled it happened in Illinois and Michigan so we can legally buy it, but why not Indiana?” says an attorney named Shana in the video.

Mike, a professional distiller, is promoting the economic impact of legalization to Indiana’s neighbors to the west.

“Now we have farms in Illinois that grow cannabis. The economic impact is huge, you know? Not only for the state, but also for smaller cities,” he says.

McDermott is considered a long shot. The Cook Political Report currently rates the Indiana Senate race as “solid Republicans.”

But the push for legalization from candidates like McDermott and Chambers comes at a time when the Senate, where Democrats are preparing a bill that would end the federal ban on pot. The Democrat-led House of Representatives passed its own legalization bill earlier this month, but the effort will face headwinds in the Senate, which is divided between Democrats and Republicans.

“Here’s the bottom line: We need to legalize marijuana at the federal level,” reads the new ad. “We must also legalize cannabis in Indiana so that Hoosiers can reap the health and economic benefits of cannabis. This is the future we all deserve.”

Indiana Democrats have been pushing for legalization in recent months. In a November announcement before the legislature, the party said it “shows its full support for efforts to legalize recreational cannabis statewide.”

“Legalizing marijuana in any form is supported by about 80% of Hoosiers and would present an opportunity to create an additional revenue stream for the state, create high-paying jobs, develop a long-term cash crop for Indiana’s agricultural and business communities medical opportunities for people like the state’s veterans and seniors and could begin the process of deleting records for simple possession statewide,” the party said in the release.

Like McDermott, Mike Schmuhl, chairman of the Indiana Democratic Party, pointed to the successful legalization policies in Illinois and Michigan.

“The Hoosiers have seen the impact that recreational and medicinal cannabis use has had on the states around us, and not only are they contributing to the economies of neighboring states, but Indiana is now on the verge of losing altogether. The Republican supermajority in the Statehouse will lose their economic common sense if they don’t join Democrats in this session to make this opportunity a winner for the Hoosier State,” Schmuhl said at the time.