How a conservative won on sex trafficking and child abuse in California’s deep blue Legislature
SACRAMENTO — One of California’s most conservative Republican lawmakers has scored an unusual win for the second year in a row by getting Democrats to embrace a tougher approach to protecting children from sex trafficking and institutional abuse.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom this week signed two high-profile bills by state Sen. Shannon Grove, a Bakersfield Republican who has opposed mandatory vaccinations for children and once suggested that God caused a drought. The bills Senate Bill 1414 and Senate Bill 1043 make it a felony to solicit a minor 15 or younger for prostitution and create a public database to disclose any uses of seclusion or behavioral constraints on minors held at residential therapeutic facilities.
“Human trafficking is a disgusting and reprehensible crime that leaves lasting pain on victims and survivors. These new laws will help us further hold predators accountable and provide victims with the support and care they need,” Newsom wrote in a statement about signing Grove’s sex trafficking bill on Thursday along with three others that support victims of sex crimes.
On Friday, Newsom signed the second bill from Grove, which will establish greater transparency about abuses against teens.
Grove in a statement called the passing of her trafficking bill an “incredible victory.” She called the bill signed Friday a “commitment to transparency and safeguarding the well-being of our at-risk children.”
While the bills Newsom signed make relatively narrow changes in the law, the bills’ successes are unusual because Democrats enjoy a supermajority in Sacramento and have traditionally resisted GOP pressure on criminal justice matters. Even more surprising: the win for Grove came during a high-stakes election year.
In response to growing worries about crime in California, the Democratic-controlled Legislature has passed a set of stringent crime bills, marking a significant change in its approach to criminal justice reform compared with previous years.
“I think she has exposed a soft underbelly of Democrats being weak on crime issues and basically embarrassed them into passing legislation,” said Steven Maviglio, a Democratic political consultant. “She touched all the right buttons ... she learned she can get some things done that she’s passionate about.”
Grove’s conservative record speaks for itself: She is a self-described “gun-carrying, tongue-talking, spirit-filled believer,” an Army veteran, and has tweeted posts alleging that former President Trump won the 2020 election. She has opposed expanding Medi-Cal health insurance to undocumented immigrants and opposed mandating that schoolchildren be vaccinated. Environmental groups and abortion rights advocates have given her failing grades on her voting record in the Legislature, while the National Rifle Assn. gives her an A.
Grove’s bills are not the only ones that Republicans have advanced to the governor this year. But Democrats will typically not move forward with Republican-authored public safety legislation, and rarely anything as attention-grabbing as the ones she introduced. Assembly Republicans moved forward 16 public safety bills to the governor, with a majority having attracted little attention. Senate Republicans have sent just three public safety bills, including Grove’s sex trafficking bills. Another was similarly punitive and, if signed, would make it a felony to rape an unconscious person, adding to the list of violent felonies, but did not stir much of a public uproar. The author of that bill recently left the Democratic Party to become a Republican this year, more than halfway through the Legislative session.
The celebrity’s advocacy against what she calls the “troubled teen industry” could lead to a new law in California.
“We have to understand what success means, the bar is very, very low in terms of getting bills signed,” said Mike Madrid, a Republican political strategist. “This isn’t a member who is viewed as a modern legislator or very influential in the legislative process. I think it’s great she passed this common-sense legislation. Do I think it’s a signal of her ability to legislate? Not at all.”
Grove proved that in two pieces of legislation, one in 2023 and another this year, tightening penalties for those involved in child sex trafficking. Last year, Assembly Democrats, under different leadership, rejected Senate Bill 14, which added human trafficking of a minor — which targets the sellers — for sex to the list of “serious felonies” under California’s penal code, triggering bipartisan outrage. After Newsom publicly scrutinized that decision, lawmakers reversed course. In his signing message, Newsom called child trafficking a “sick” crime.
Grove got crafty by looping in celebrity hotel heiress Paris Hilton as the face of Senate Bill 1043. The bill will require the state to publish online data citing any incidences of abuse and uses of isolation in teenage treatment facilities against teenagers. Hilton, who as a teenager endured abuse while in the custody of a youth education treatment facility, came to Sacramento in April to testify in support.
“It’s effective,” Maviglio said about the celebrity endorsement for Grove’s bill. “You do what it takes to make the right move.”
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