California lawmakers advanced a bill Tuesday that critics say could benefit candidates with sex-crime convictions, as Nancy Pelosi’s potential successor to helped push exceptions for some offenses involving minors.
Los Banos Enterprise reported that Bill 2753 had already drawn bipartisan support in the California State Assembly before failing Tuesday in the California Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee.
ABC30 tied Democratic state Assemblywoman Esmeralda Soria’s proposal to Rene Campos, a registered sex offender convicted of possessing child sex abuse material who had announced a Fresno City Council run.
The bill text would have put a statewide candidacy ban into California elections law for anyone required to register as a sex offender.
After the vote, Soria’s office said she was “deeply disappointed and disheartened,” and Soria said she was not willing to make more amendments.
“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.”
🗳️Turning Point PAC is deploying the largest ballot-chasing operation in U.S. History to secure key battleground states. 🗳️ Keep our grassroots army in the field and protect future victories! ➡️➡️➡️ DONATE TODAY!!! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Los Banos Enterprise reported that the Senate committee raised concerns about the bill’s broad language.
Under that reading, past registration could still end a candidacy even after removal from the registry or later changes to the law.
The committee analysis raised concerns about LGBTQ+ Californians and warned that changing legal definitions could leave outdated sex-offense categories in place.
“The bill does not make allowances for changes in law over time, so things that may have been sex offenses in the past, such as consensual sex between two men, would preclude a person from running for office under this bill,” the analysis claims.
Sen. Scott Wiener made clear during the hearing that Soria’s bill did not have his support.
“I will be voting no on this bill and recommending that the committee vote no,” Wiener stated.
He pointed to earlier changes to California’s sex-offender registry, describing the prior system as “extreme and broken” before lawmakers began “fixing it.”
A separate February proposal from Democratic State Assemblywoman Dawn Addis advanced through the Senate committee.
Instead of using the registry as the dividing line, Addis’ bill targets a narrower set of felony sexual assault and human trafficking convictions.
Last week, the California Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee advanced AB-2691 with a revised definition of “sexual assault.”
The amendment narrowed which past convictions would count against a candidate.
Certain minor-related convictions would fall outside the bill’s “sexual assault” definition under specified conditions.
As committee chair, Wiener, a candidate for Nancy Pelosi’s congressional seat, pushed the exception tied to crimes against children.
AB-2691 had passed the California Assembly unanimously. In the Senate committee, the definition changed so several California penal code violations involving minors would not be treated as “sexual assault” for candidate-disqualification purposes.
With the amended language in place, Wiener voted yes and AB-2691 moved out of committee 4-1.
Wiener cast the backlash as political theater. “I’ve been in politics a long time, and every time I think I’ve seen the height of cynicism in politics, there are some people who manage to set a new world record in political cynicism,” Wiener remarked.
Wiener’s earlier sex-offender legislation also became part of the criticism.
That 2019 measure, now law, removed mandatory registry placement for some young adults when the victimized minor was at least 14 and within a 10-year age gap.
A separate sex-crime controversy also drew political blowback in Minnesota.
In Minnesota, Democratic Gov. Tim Walz drew fire from the Department of Homeland Security over a pardon for Tou Lue Vang, a Laotian immigrant who had pleaded guilty in a case involving repeated sexual assaults of a 10-year-old girl.
The agency said the pardon blocked Vang’s removal from the United States.
The case dated back to a 2005 first-degree criminal sexual conduct conviction, followed more than 20 years later by a pardon under Walz.
KSTP identified the Minnesota Board of Pardons as a three-member body made up of the chief justice, attorney general and governor.
.@GovTimWalz and Minnesota sanctuary politicians PARDONED an illegal alien who REPEATEDLY SEXUALLY ASSAULTED A 10-YEAR-OLD.
On June 10, the Minnesota Board of Pardons voted to grant Tou Lue Vang, from Laos, a pardon for his 2006 convictions for sexual assault—strongarm sodomy… pic.twitter.com/RErAWX2sp6
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) July 1, 2026
A week after the pardon, Vang had been scheduled for deportation, DHS said.
DHS framed the pardon as the reason Vang could remain despite the prior removal order.
DHS also pointed to what Vang reportedly told police.
“I made a mistake, but this is a minor thing,” Vang reportedly told police.
DHS said Vang also claimed that “it’s a cultural thing to marry and have sex with girls as young as 12.”
Although Vang was sentenced to 144 months in prison, he reportedly avoided serving time through the guilty plea, received 30 years of probation, completed it in 2019 and later received the pardon.
Acting DHS Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis described the pardon as “disgusting.”
“Governor Tim Walz’s decision to pardon an illegal alien convicted child rapist so he can remain in our country is disgusting,” Bis said.
“These are the criminal illegal aliens he and his Minnesota sanctuary politicians are protecting. Tou Lue Vang lost his legal status following his conviction for repeatedly sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl,” Bis added.
Following the conviction, he was placed in removal proceedings and issued a final order of removal by a judge. This pardon will take away this child rapist’s qualifying convictions that made him removable from the United States.”
