Tucked in the mouth of a political hopeful from the deep south was a fat blunt, the entrails of smoke curling from the end as the red-glow of a lighter disappeared from view.

The hand holding it belonged to Gary Chambers Jr. — a candidate from Louisiana vying for a seat in the U.S. Senate.

The image of Chambers brazenly smoking marijuana set the scene for his first official campaign ad, a 37-second video in which he puffs on a blunt from a tufted leather chair in a field somewhere in Louisiana. The ad, Chambers said in a post accompanying the video, is designed to “destigmatize the use of marijuana,” create a pathway to legalization and “forgive those who were arrested due to outdated ideology.”

Chambers, a self-described social justice advocate from Baton Rouge and co-founder of the media outlet The Rouge Collection, is running against incumbent Sen. John Kennedy, a Republican first elected in 2016, NBC News reported.

He tweeted the video just after 8 a.m. ET on Tuesday, Jan. 18. By 6 p.m., it had been liked more than 39,000 times with over 9,000 retweets.

The internet was loving it.

“Probably the most *blunt* campaign ad you’ll see this year,” said Frank Luntz, a Republican political consultant.

“This is dope... Pun intended,” human rights lawyer Arsalan Iftikhar tweeted in response.

Others called it “courageous,” “beast mode beautiful” and “the greatest campaign ad I have ever seen.”

Erick Sanchez, a public relations specialist from New Orleans, tweeted that he was “honored to write and produce this ad, my very first.” He also thanked Chambers for being willing to “take such a bold stance.”

In the video, Chambers says someone is arrested for possessing marijuana every 37 seconds and that police have arrested roughly 7.3 million people since 2010 for violating marijuana-related laws.

“Black people are four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana laws than white people,” he said. “States waste $3.7 billion enforcing marijuana laws every year. Most of the people police are arresting aren’t dealers, but rather people with small amounts of pot — just like me.”

Marijuana isn’t legal in Louisiana, Marijuana Moment reported, but possession of up to 14 grams has been decriminalized with violators facing a fine of $100. The city of New Orleans has also said it won’t issue citations for possessing cannabis, and Gov. John Bel Edwards — a Democrat — signed legislation last year that allows patients in Louisiana’s medical marijuana program to legally smoke whole-plant marijuana flower, according to the media outlet.

Chambers hasn’t formally announced his platform but “previously expressed strong support for progressive policies including the Green New Deal and Medicare for All,” The New Orleans Times-Picayune reported.

On his website, Chambers said he’s running as a voice for the working-class and touts his previous work advocating for justice reform, health care and equal access to municipal contracts for minority-owned businesses. Beyond weed legalization, his campaign told the Rolling Stone in a statement that Chambers backs economic aid such as the Build Back Better Act and equal voting rights.

His spokesperson Randy Jones also confirmed the blunt Chambers smoked in the video was — in fact — real, Rolling Stone reported.

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