California pedo Democrats backed into a corner over teen sex solicitation

California Republicans are increasingly pushing Democrats on child sex 
crimes bills. The supermajority is growing more divided about it.

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California Republicans have developed something of a formula in the state 
Legislature. 

Push to raise penalties for certain kinds of sex crimes, like trafficking 
minors. Press the Democrats, many of whom remain wary of increasing prison 
sentences in the waning heyday of criminal justice reform, on the details. 
Have a field day in the media with the ensuing public outrage. 

It’s become a reliable way over the past three years to deliver small wins 
for the superminority party. Even if Republicans aren’t always successful 
at passing the legislation, they can use it to expose fault lines among 
the opposing party that dominates the Capitol, or even score some support 
from the state’s de facto Democratic leader, Gov. Gavin Newsom.

That strategy has led them to win bipartisan approval for bills to 
increase the penalties for child sex trafficking and soliciting 15-year-
olds and under for sex.

The latest such episode exploded in the Assembly this week when 
Republicans tried to push Democrats to increase penalties for soliciting 
16- and 17-year-olds for sex or prostitution. That crime is a misdemeanor 
punishable by between two days to a year in jail. 

Solicitation involves asking for or arranging sex in exchange for money or 
something valuable; a host of other sex crimes involving minors of any age 
are felonies, including paying for and having sex with a minor.

This time, Republicans had the backing of freshman Democratic 
Assemblymember Maggy Krell, of Sacramento, who authored Assembly Bill 379. 
Krell objected on Tuesday when her colleagues removed the provision on 
soliciting older minors, saying fellow Democrats had forced her to agree 
to it on the threat the Public Safety committee would refuse to hold a 
hearing otherwise. 

When Republicans said they would try to add the provision into another 
bill on the floor on Thursday, she bucked Democratic leadership by 
supporting them. 

“We need to say, loud and clear, that if you’re under 18, a child, a minor 
… the person buying that person should be charged with a felony,” she said 
on the Assembly floor. “It’s plain and simple, sex without consent – 
that’s rape.”

Some moderate Democrats joined her, publicly chiding their colleagues for 
walking into a political landmine.

“Somehow, as our president tanks our economy and deports innocent 
children, the American people still don’t trust Democrats,” said 
Bakersfield Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains. “Any sane person knows that 
purchasing a 16- and 17-year-old for sex should be a felony, not a 
misdemeanor. This should not be a debate.”

A rare intervention from Newsom
Democrats already did the same thing last year. 

When they passed a Republican bill to increase penalties for soliciting 
minors, they carved out 16 and 17-year-olds out of concern the provision 
would treat older teenagers who are in consenting relationships the same 
as human traffickers. With the passage of that law, soliciting minors who 
are 15 or younger is punishable by up to three years in jail. 

Newsom, too, earlier this week issued a statement supporting the higher 
penalties for minors of all ages — a rare, but not unprecedented, 
intervention from a governor who occasionally chides fellow progressives 
when he thinks they’ve gone too far. 

The Republican effort failed on the Assembly floor Thursday, though it did 
garner some support from Democrats, like Bains. And it forced Democrats 
into a defensive mode. 

They inserted language into the bill expressing their “intent” to address 
the question of older teens, and continue debating the matter in future 
hearings this year. Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas also stripped Krell’s 
name from the bill and wrote in two Democratic co-authors, Assembly Public 
Safety Chair Nick Schultz and Elk Grove Assemblymember Stephanie Nguyen, a 
moderate Democrat.

Schultz, a Burbank Democrat, said he plans to hold informational hearings 
on the issue and hopes to pass some form of amended bill this fall. The 
bill, without the higher penalties for soliciting older teens, is headed 
to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, a San Diego Republican, vowed to make 
Democrats pay for the move in the next election.

“I don’t think voters are going to fall for this, and I will spend every 
day working to ensure that,” he said. 

Progressives warn of ‘unintended harm’ to teens
Krell, a former prosecutor of sex crimes known for taking on the operators 
of the trafficking website Backpage, introduced AB 379 to target buyers of 
teenage victims in the sex trade. 

It’s supported by Republicans, organizations that help survivors, law 
enforcement, including Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper, and Lt. Gov. 
Eleni Kounalakis. The proposal would make it a crime to loiter with the 
intent to purchase sex, and would use the fines from those charges to fund 
services for trafficking survivors. 

Krell’s fellow Democrats mostly don’t have a problem with that. But they 
objected to the bill’s inclusion of making the solicitation of 16- and 17-
year-olds a “wobbler” on the first offense, meaning it could be charged as 
a misdemeanor or a felony. They had just removed an identical provision 
from a law by Republican Sen. Shannon Grove, of Bakersfield, last year, 
that made solicitation of 15-year-olds (or any minor who is a trafficking 
victim) a “wobbler” on first offense. 

Progressives, criminal justice reform advocates and other organizations 
that help survivors are concerned with blurry lines in some young people’s 
relationships. In a statement, Anne Irwin, director of Smart Justice 
California, said the provision “risked unintended harm to minors.”

Democrats said they don’t want to allow older teenagers to be charged with 
felonies if their parents don’t approve of an interracial or an LGBTQ 
consenting relationship. 

“Sending an 18-year-old high school senior to state prison for offering 
his 17-year-old classmate $20 to fool around isn’t smart criminal justice 
policy,” Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat, wrote on social 
media this week. 

Proponents of the legislation have said those concerns are largely 
hypothetical. They countered that prosecutors wouldn’t spend time charging 
teenagers who are having consensual sex. (The legal age of consent is 18.) 
Grove, who co-authored Krell’s bill, said though it’s already a felony to 
pay for sex with any minor, any conversation and deal-making that precedes 
that act should be stopped.

But Schultz and Rivas accused their critics of playing politics and 
misstating current laws. In addition to it being a felony to have sex with 
a minor, it is also a felony to contact any minor to commit sexual offense 
and to send sexual text messages to minors.

“No one in the room is OK with” minors being sold for sex, Rivas said. 
“This is a nuanced issue and conversation.”

Schultz would not share details of how he envisions changing the bill to 
include 16- and 17-year-olds later this year, but said he’s considering 
provisions that lessen penalties for the alleged offender if he’s close in 
age to the victim — similar to carve-outs in the state’s statutory rape 
laws. 

Rivas dismissed the idea the issue had become a political liability for 
Democrats. 

“It’s always high stakes around here,” he said. “Our commitment is to get 
it right.”

A previous version of this story incorrectly said Sen. Scott Wiener 
supported removing felony penalties for 16- and 17-year-olds from 
legislation last year. Wiener supported the final version of the bill that 
included higher penalties in cases where there is evidence of human 
trafficking.

https://calmatters.org/politics/2025/05/california-democrats-teen-sex-
solicitation/