In this week’s Working Lunch, Joe Kefauver and Franklin Coley of Align Public Strategies speak with Mike Whatley, vice president of state affairs and grassroots advocacy at the National Restaurant Association, who walks through the hemp-product issue. The association has asked Congress to delay for two years a forthcoming ban on hemp products. Whatley explains why.
In addition, Whatley will offer his take on the first half of 2026 and how the industry has fared.
And Kefauver and Coley discuss the results of the New York primary, and how NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani has become a political kingmaker.
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