By As former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi exits the political stage, State Sen. Scott Wiener has quickly emerged as the frontrunner to succeed her. But as Democratic leaders consolidate behind him, opponents are seizing on a recurring theme in his legislative history: a striking concentration on sex-related policy, from gender-identity protections to prostitution laws to bills involving minors.
Wiener secured his first major endorsement within hours of Pelosi’s announcement, when California Attorney General Rob Bonta declared his support, according to The Washington Examiner. Party insiders expect Pelosi may follow, despite a field that includes Saikat Chakrabarti—the former chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—whose earlier role in Washington stirred tensions among Democrats.
Yet the political conversation around Wiener is dominated less by the endorsements than by the pattern critics say defines his tenure. Few lawmakers in Sacramento have devoted more time—or more political capital—to legislation touching on sex, sexuality, and the legal treatment of minors, a focus that has repeatedly placed him at the center of cultural and ideological battles.
TPM’s @libbyemmons sounds the alarm about Nancy Pelosi’s departure from Congress:
“My only worry with Pelosi leaving is that Scott Weiner will replace her.” pic.twitter.com/WRLriyhSou
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) November 7, 2025
Wiener drew national attention for championing California as a “refuge” for “transgender” minors seeking medical interventions restricted in other states. He authored the “Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act,” permitting male inmates who identify as women—including those convicted of violent crimes—to transfer to women’s prisons. Supporters called it a civil-rights milestone; opponents said it ignored basic safety concerns.
His criminal-justice bills have repeatedly returned to questions of sex and sexual conduct. Wiener co-authored legislation allowing certain convicted murderers—including those who “killed multiple victims or killed in concert with a rape, robbery, kidnapping or torture”—to be considered for early release after 20 years. He also spearheaded the effort to reduce penalties for intentionally transmitting HIV, arguing the old law was “stigmatizing.”
But it was Wiener’s push to unravel California’s enforcement tools around prostitution and trafficking that prompted the fiercest backlash. His 2022 bill, SB 357, repealed the state’s anti-loitering statute long used to disrupt street-level sex-trade corridors. Anti-trafficking advocates said the repeal made it harder to identify minors being exploited, while Wiener insisted the previous law encouraged profiling and criminalized sex workers rather than predators.
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Those tensions came to a head in 2025, when legislators debated harsher penalties for adults soliciting minors. Wiener opposed reinstating loitering laws or expanding solicitation statutes in measures like AB 379, warning they could sweep too broadly and harm marginalized groups. He pointed to hypothetical campus scenarios—“18-year-old students propositioning peers”—to argue the bill went too far. Democratic leaders ultimately overruled him and added felony penalties for purchasing sex from 16- and 17-year-olds, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed in August. Opponents charged that Wiener and a faction of Democrats had initially slow-walked reforms that would have strengthened prosecutions against offenders targeting teens.
His earlier sponsorship of SB 145 in 2020 intensified these accusations. The bill adjusted sex-offender registration rules for same-sex encounters between minors and adults close in age to mirror existing “Romeo and Juliet” provisions for heterosexual couples. Although legal analysts stressed that the law did not change penalties for predatory conduct or apply to large age gaps, the political fallout was immense. Conservative critics and conspiracy theorists claimed the measure shielded predators, prompting waves of online harassment and death threats against Wiener—attacks fueled by widespread misunderstanding of the bill but amplified by his broader record’s unusual emphasis on sexual-conduct statutes.
As Wiener seeks to transition from Sacramento to Congress, the pattern of legislation he has championed—concentrated heavily in the realms of sex policy, sexual-conduct regulation, and disputes involving minors—has become the centerpiece of both his support and reveals how Democrats plan to double down on cultural issues in the upcoming years. With establishment Democrats lining up behind him, he enters the race as the favorite. That’s just the way they like it.
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