A new anti-drug super PAC based in Colorado said it is targeting U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, the Republican congresswoman from South Carolina, in the primary election over her support for federally decriminalizing marijuana use.

Protect Our Kids PAC, which is also launching this week, will engage in electioneering campaigns for legislative and congressional seats nationwide to try and take out candidates who support marijuana legalization and boost the campaigns of those who oppose drug use, according to Luke Niforatos, the group’s chief executive officer. 

In Colorado, the group is backing Rep. Yadira Caraveo’s bid to defeat primary rivals in the hotly contested 8th Congressional District, which covers portions of Adams, Weld and Larimer counties. The seat is considered the state’s most evenly divided congressional district.

Niforatos said the group is spending five figures – he declined to divulge how much – against Mace, who introduced legislation to end Congress’ 85-year prohibition on marijuana use and let states decide whether to embrace its use and in what form. Mace argued it’s time for the federal government to “(codify) this reality,” referring to states embracing the drug. In a statement, Mace said the legislation “takes special care to keep Americans and their children safe while ending federal interference with state cannabis laws.”

“(Mace has) become the Republican face of marijuana legalization in a district and a state that has no marijuana legalization at all,” Niforatos told Colorado Politics. “She’s not putting families first. She’s not putting parents and kids first, and so we’re just going to make sure that her primary voters know about that.”  

The group’s digital ads depict Mace as prioritizing marijuana use over more pressing issues. “Is more weed in your neighborhood your priority? Because it’s hers,” the ad says. 

Protect Our Kids PAC hopes to influence electoral contests as more states embrace the use of marijuana as a recreational drug or for medical purposes. The pace of that policy change has quickened in the last several years. In 2011, no state had legalized recreational marijuana. Today, 18 states permit recreational use of the drug, while 37 states, plus four territories and the District of Columbia, allow for its medical use.

The bulk of the battle over marijuana, which remains federally prohibited, occur in states. Supporters argue that marijuana’s adverse effects are modest compared to other drugs, that it should be regulated like alcohol, that society widely accepts its use, and that the war on drugs is incarcerating too many Americans, with harmful repercussions for families and a high prison price tag for states. Critics argue that the societal costs – lost productivity, hospitalization, addiction, among others – dwarf the benefits of legalizing marijuana. They also argue that legalization exposes children and teenagers to the pernicious threat of addiction, with serious short and long-term consequences for their health.

In Colorado, the goal is not to roll back legalization tomorrow but to “not be a rubber stamp for the marijuana industry,” Niforatos said. “The goal is to hold them accountable, regulate them tightly and do a better job of protecting our kids.”

In addition to backing Yadira’s campaign in Colorado, Protect Our Kids PAC also supports state Rep. Lauren Davis, who is seeking reelection in Washington state; former federal prosecutor Mike Stuart, who is running for the state Senate in West Virginia; and, Rep. Kim Moser, who is seeking reelection in Kentucky.

Niforatos, who also serves as executive vice president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, said Protect Our Kids PAC adopts a two-pronged approach – support candidates who critically look at drug use and spend against candidates on the opposite end of that spectrum. He added that his group is non-partisan, targeting both Republicans and Democrats alike, depending on their position on drug use.

In particular, his group, which he describes parent-led, seeks to advance the voices of families whose children have been lost to marijuana addiction or other drug issues, Niforatos said.

“They are the ones leading this, and this is really, I think, kind of in line with the movement of parents rising up across the country, trying to protect their families and protect their kids,” he said. “That’s what we’re going to be seeking to unleash – the power of parents.”