What happened
Shares of Canadian pot giant Aurora Cannabis (ACB +3.31%) jumped by as much as 17% in pre-market trading Wednesday morning. The marijuana cultivator's stock is shooting northward in response to the early results from two Senate runoff elections in Georgia held yesterday.
While ballots are still being counted in the Peach State, some major news outlets are already calling the race for Democratic challenger Rev. Raphael Warnock over Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler. Democrat Jon Ossoff also holds a slight lead over Republican Sen. David Perdue with 98% of the votes counted, according to multiple sources. Democrats thus appear to be on the verge of equalizing the Senate at 50 seats a piece.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
Over the past two years, three major pieces of legislation on marijuana reform have passed the U.S. House of Representatives. Each time, however, these bills have gone nowhere fast in the Republican-controlled Senate, thanks largely to opposition from current majority leader Mitch McConnell. One or more of these marijuana reform bills, though, may now have a chance of actually being passed in light of this potential power shift. Aurora, therefore, might be able to vastly expand its U.S. footprint within the next few years.
Now what
Is this pot stock a buy in the wake of this possible political shift in the United States? Unfortunately, the answer is a solid no. There is no way to say for sure how far any initial marijuana reform in the U.S. will go. What's more, the U.S. already sports several entrenched multistate operators. Put simply, Aurora probably won't realize any material benefit from this likely political swing in 2021.
