Call it the Cynthia Nixon effect.

Cynthia Nixon’s pro-cannabis platform has continued to not only push New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s administration to release pro-cannabis studies and reports, but Nixon’s candidacy has gained the momentum and grassroots support of enough New Yorkers through the summer to now be pressing Cuomo and his cronies into a hotly contested primary election on September 13. Quick aside: If there’s one thing that six months ago Cuomo and his group did not want, it is a primary against the resilient and infectiously optimistic Nixon.

Nixon’s surprising campaign found her and Cuomo both  standing amidst the revelry of Brooklyn’s annual Labor Day party, the West Indian Day Parade on Monday of this week.  Nixon, the TV star-cum-savior (to the Instagram policy wonks) riding a parade float; and Cuomo, the Empire State’s incumbent governor, backed by the might of the Democratic establishment, out there shaking hands –ironically, through clouds of marijuana from very pro-cannabis passersby– with so many body-painted and exuberant New Yorkers under the scorching sun. While the reasons for Nixon’s surprisingly robust candidacy are myriad, one sticks out and strikes a chord with voters and a concerned Cuomo camp alike: legalized cannabis.

However, it’s important to emphasize that for Cynthia Nixon, as she forcefully stated in the gubernatorial debate last week, this is much more of a social justice issue than anything else in her eyes. “There are a lot of good reasons for legalizing marijuana, but for me, it comes down to this: We have to stop putting people of color in jail for something that white people do with impunity,” Nixon explained. And she is 100% correct.

As we’ve discussed with regards to Phase 2 in Los Angeles, social equity and financing, legalized cannabis is not just about multi-billion-dollar valuations. Legalized cannabis, in addition to a myriad of regulations, bears a tremendous obligation and responsibility to so many communities.

While politicians at a parade is a tale as old as time, Cuomo, voters, and pundits on both sides of the aisle have become aware of a new reckoning in Cynthia Nixon’s pro-cannabis stance. Initially, her stance was positioned by critics as a gimmick, but as the weeks have become months, more and more are recognizing the impact her policy has had in reshaping New York’s approach to cannabis.

It’s an oversimplification to state that *only* Cynthia Nixon’s pro-cannabis platform has led to the state of New York’s report from earlier this summer. For one, New York and Governor Cuomo both are not blind to what has already occurred in Massachusetts and what Cuomo’s counterpart across the Hudson, Phil Murphy (D, NJ) is trying to get accomplished. That being said, whether Nixon loses the primary to Cuomo (still a very likely outcome at least according to pollsters), it’ll be tough to argue that anyone more than Cynthia Nixon has helped to shape public opinion on cannabis in the Empire State, and that no one has done more to bring a pro-cannabis platform to New York’s political limelight.