California lawmakers killed a bill that would have barred registered sex offenders from running for office Tuesday after advancing a similar bill allowing candidates who have committed sex crimes against minors.
Bill 2753, proposed by Democratic state Assemblywoman Esmeralda Soria in February, would have amended California’s elections code to prohibit all registered sex offenders from running for any state or local office, according to the text of the bill. The bill failed in the California Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee Tuesday after moving through the California State Assembly with bipartisan support, Los Banos Enterprise reported.
Bill 2691, introduced by Democratic State Assemblywoman Dawn Addis in February, is similar legislation that bans individuals convicted of specific felony sexual assault or human trafficking crimes from running for office. It passed the California Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee last week. Unlike Bill 2753, this bill does not cover all offenses requiring sex offender registration.
Before the Senate committee advanced the bill, legislators amended it by defining “sexual assault” so certain criminal convictions would not bar individuals from candidacy. Under the amendment, individuals guilty of sodomy, oral copulation, or sexual penetration against minors under certain conditions are not included under the definition of “sexual assault” and can still run for office.
BREAKING: California lawmakers in the Senate Elections Committee kill bill that would have prevented people registered as sex offenders from running for office.
— Ashley Zavala (@ZavalaA) June 30, 2026
Soria proposed her bill after Rene Campos, a registered sex offender convicted of possessing child sex abuse material, announced his plans to run for City Council in Fresno, California, according to ABC30. The Senate committee evaluating the bill raised concerns about its broad language, emphasizing that it would permanently eliminate any individuals who had to register regardless of whether they were eventually removed from the registry or whether the law changed, Los Banos Enterprise reported.
Soria said she was “deeply disappointed and disheartened” after the bill failed, according to a press release from her office.
“The bottom line is this: I was not willing to make additional amendments to this bill,” Soria said. “I made a promise to my community that I would do everything in my power to ensure they would never have to go through something like this again. Accepting additional amendments to this bill would have jeopardized that promise.”
Fresno City Council President Nelson Esparza joined Soria in expressing disappointment.
“This decision from the Senate Elections Committee is a gut punch for our community in Fresno,” Esparza said in the same press release. “I want to thank Assemblywoman Soria for doing everything she could to deliver a commonsense bill. This was a bill worth standing up and fighting for.”
Since Addis’ bill provides exceptions and does not cover all sex offenders, it has a narrower scope than Soria’s. Democratic state Senator Scott Wiener, Committee Chairman of the Senate Elections Committee, has been accused of adding the exceptions to Addis’ bill to further narrow its scope, the New York Post reported.
The bill was AB 2753 by Asm. Soria.
The committee advanced a bill prohibiting people convicted of felony sex crimes from running for office, but the committee amended the bill to exclude some sex crimes against children, AB 2691 by Asm. Dawn Addis.
— Ashley Zavala (@ZavalaA) June 30, 2026
Critics slammed Wiener for his role in adding the exceptions at a hearing Tuesday.
“Our honest reaction was that it could not be real. We assume we’ve misread it. We sat in our office and tried to imagine how anyone could stand up and defend it,” said Greg Burt, vice president of the California Family Council, at the hearing, according to the New York Post.
“So I’m here today generally hoping someone will tell us why crimes against children are being carved out of this bill,” Burt added.
Wiener said the exceptions protected young adults who had just been minors from unfair punishment, according to the outlet. He argued the original draft could have applied to an 18-year-old who had sex with a 17-year-old, despite those cases generally being prosecuted as misdemeanors.
Wiener also opposed Soria’s bill, claiming that California’s sex offender registry was an “extreme and broken” system that unfairly targeted gay men, according to the New York Post.
Wiener, who identifies as gay, previously drafted a bill relaxing requirements for sex offenders who were within 10 years of age of the minor they assaulted. Newsom signed that bill into law in 2020. Wiener also introduced a bill in January 2019 to halt “discrimination against LGBTQ young people on the sex offender registry.” (Mayor Jacob Frey Revives Sex Dens Once Shut Down Over AIDS Crisis)
If made law, Bill 2691 will apply to candidates for city council, county board, school board, or any election for any level of Californian government.
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