California Just Banned Convicted Human Traffickers From Running for Office Despite Two Republicans Voting No

Californians convicted of human trafficking or the most serious sexual assault felonies will be barred from running for or holding state and local elected office from 1 January 2027, after Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill that its author calls the first of its kind in the nation.

Assembly Bill 2691 passed the legislature with near-unanimous support. The only two votes against it came from Republican senators. One of them, Steven Choi, said his objection was not to the ban itself but to the sex offenders the final version still allows on the ballot.

What the New Law Does

Newsom approved AB 2691, the Public Trust Protection Act, and it was chaptered by the Secretary of State on 27 September 2026, according to legislative records compiled by CalMatters' Digital Democracy.

The law adds two categories of felony to the list of convictions that disqualify a person from elected office in California. Until now, that list covered bribery, embezzlement or theft of public money, extortion, perjury and conspiracy to commit those crimes.

The first new category is human trafficking, as defined in the state penal code. The second is sexual assault, defined as any crime that requires lifetime registration as a sex offender, known as tier 3. The law takes effect on 1 January 2027.

Convictions in other states, federal courts and foreign countries count where the crime would be a felony in California, unless the person has received a pardon from an authority specified in the statute.

'For far too long, survivors have been silenced while watching their abusers seek public office and positions of power,' said its author, Democratic Assemblywoman Dawn Addis of Morro Bay, Paso Robles Daily News reported. She described it as 'a first-in-the nation policy'.

When the bill first cleared the Assembly in April, Addis said it was 'about protecting public trust and standing firm with survivors of sexual assault and sex trafficking', and that bipartisan support showed 'California stands strong with survivors'.

Near-Unanimous Votes in Both Chambers

The bill cleared the Assembly 67-0 in April. On 25 August it passed the Senate 34-2, and the Assembly then agreed to the Senate's amendments 74-0, according to the vote record.

The two votes against it in the Senate came from Republicans Steven Choi of Irvine and Brian Jones. Choi had also cast the only vote against it in the Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee in June, when the committee advanced it 4-1.

Four senators did not vote, including Republicans Shannon Grove and Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh. In the Assembly, the bill had earlier cleared the Elections Committee 7-0.

Choi's stated objection was not to the trafficking ban. His fight, and that of several Republican colleagues, was over who else the bill should keep off the ballot.

Republicans Say the Bill Was Watered Down

As introduced, the bill barred anyone convicted of felony sexual assault or human trafficking. In June, the Senate Elections committee, chaired by Democratic Senator Scott Wiener, amended it to exempt felony sodomy, oral copulation and sexual penetration against victims aged 14 to 17.

An August rewrite removed that named exemption but narrowed the sexual assault definition to tier 3 offences only, the California Globe reported. People required to register as sex offenders for 10 or 20 years, including some convicted of crimes against children, can still run.

Choi said the original version reflected the right principle. 'The amended bill does not, and I cannot support it in its current form,' he wrote on his Senate website on 20 August.

He said in committee that Addis could not explain why the exemption was needed. 'That's unacceptable,' he said, according to the Globe.

Republican Senator Suzette Martinez Valladares tried to restore the original language, but Senate Democrats rejected her amendments. She accused the committee of creating 'a loophole so large that people convicted of the most heinous crimes against children can still run for office', according to Choi's office.

'Protecting kids should not be controversial,' she said. 'Predators who sexually abuse children have no place holding public office,' she said. 'Convicted sex offenders don't get to hold public office. Period.'

A Compromise Under Pressure

According to Choi's office, Addis accepted Wiener's changes because the alternative was losing the bill. A similar measure, AB 2753, failed to advance when its author refused the same demand, his office said.

Wiener argued in committee that a ban based on the sex offender registry would reach further than the registry itself, which is not always permanent. 'Sex offender registry is not punishment,' he said, according to Choi's office.

The conservative California Family Council campaigned against the rewrite. 'This bill was supposed to keep sex offenders out of public office,' its vice president, Greg Burt, said. 'As written, it tells some of them they're still welcome to run,' according to the group.

The trafficking provision remained in the final version Newsom signed. From 1 January 2027, people convicted of the specified human trafficking felonies will be disqualified from state and local elective office in California, while the sexual assault provision will apply only to convictions requiring tier 3 registration.