State officials are making the case for voters to support a ballot measure that would drastically increase protections for children currently, or who may later be, under the heinous scourge of sex trafficking in Arizona.
Recently, Arizona State Senator Janae Shamp urged voters to vote yes on Proposition 313 in the upcoming November Election.
If passed by voters, Proposition 313 would “require that a person convicted of a Class 2 Felony for child sex trafficking be sentenced to imprisonment in the custody of the Department of Corrections for natural life without the possibility of release.” According to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office, “The current sentencing ranges are between 7 years and natural life imprisonment without the possibility of release, depending on the age of the victim, the defendant’s criminal history, and other factors.”
Last week, Shamp shared a post from President Donald J. Trump’s ‘War Room’ account that detailed the dangers of sex trafficking of minors. The post revealed that these acts are “becoming the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the United States,” and that “this horrifying reality” was the result “of Kamala Harris’ open border.”
Sex trafficking of minors is becoming the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the United States.
"The reality of the situation is that ordering sex trafficking victims is just as simple as ordering pizza."
This measure was referred to the ballot by the Arizona Legislature earlier this year. State Senator Shawnna Bolick spearheaded the effort as part of her persistent efforts to protect innocent children around Arizona. Writing about the importance of this measure, Bolick said, “Every two minutes a child from the United States is trafficked for the sole purpose of human exploitation. According to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, the average age of entry into sex trafficking is 14 years old. Traffickers steal our children as young as five years old to sell them into a life of misery and despair.”
Bolick added, “These adolescents lose everything to be thrown into the sex trade business. They are removed from their families and often sold over and over and forced to perform unspeakable acts. With the rise of social media and internet capabilities, these innocent children often have an internet presence against their own will, where predators share and sell their images and videos repeatedly across the Dark Web…. Your YES vote on Proposition 313 will protect children from sexual exploitation. Our neighbor’s daughter or son needs your YES vote for protection.”
Yavapai County Sheriff David Rhodes, the President of the Arizona Sheriff Association, also lent his voice to supporting this ballot measure. He stated, “Currently, when caught, the people who traffic these children face prison sentences that do not match the crime. But now, with Prop. 313, these monsters can meet true justice when apprehended and convicted in an Arizona court of law. The sheriffs across Arizona fully support the simplicity of Prop. 313 – convicted of 2nd-degree felony child sex trafficking and face a lifetime in an Arizona prison cell with no opportunity for an early release.”
Pinal County Mark Lamb weighed in, saying, “A yes vote on Prop 313 means you are willing to protect our kids and give our law enforcement the tools needed to hold sex traffickers accountable for their actions. Help us to send a strong message to those who wish to exploit the most vulnerable populations that our children are not for sale.”
Senator Shamp also appeared at a town hall in Maricopa County with national advocate Riley Gaines and other speakers. She and the other ladies on the panel promoted Proposition 313 and urged attendees to help send a message to perpetrators that “no child is for sale in Arizona or throughout America.”
On Wednesday evening, a crowd of over 2,000 people, both at Generation Church in Mesa and in overflow seating gathered by Turning Point USA, greeted Republican Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance for a rally and vote chasing event. During the event, Vance and TPUSA’s Charlie Kirk took to the stage and made a brutal case against a Kamala Harris presidency.
In their conversation before taking questions from the audience, Vance and Kirk discussed the plagues of fentanyl and child sex trafficking and the toll they are taking on not only Arizona, but on the nation as a whole. Vance was highly critical of Harris’ border policy and attempts to co-opt the visual of the border wall constructed under President Donald Trump’s administration for her campaign ads. They addressed inflation robbing Arizonans and Americans alike of wealth, and in particular stealing from Phoenix the coveted title of ‘most affordable city.’
First and foremost however, Vance criticized Harris as “terrified of the media because she’s terrified of the American people because she knows that if she speaks off the cuff, she’s going to let them know just how completely radical she is.” He stressed, “She is exactly what she said she was. She’s exactly what she has governed as, and the reason why she only talks to the American people with a teleprompter sitting in between them is because she knows the American people can smell a fraud, and she is a fraud. And we have to remind people of it.”
Kirk and Vance brought the combined interests of Harris and Democrat Vice Presidential nominee Tim Walz to the forefront as well, recalling Harris’ donation to a bail fund for those Summer 2020 rioters who burned Minneapolis.
Vance observed, “It’s almost hard to believe Charlie, but I looked this up. It actually is true. Remember when there were rioters in the summer of 2020 that burned down the City of Minneapolis and a bunch of other cities on top of it. Now they didn’t catch a whole lot of them, but they did catch some of those rioters, and guess who was at the front of the line trying to bail them out of prison. Kamala Harris, who now says that she supports police officers. We can never let her forget it. She was bailing out the people who were attacking police officers and burning down a great American city. That is the record of Kamala Harris, and let’s have a President like Donald J. Trump who actually supports our police officers to keep us safe. It’s very simple stuff.”
Perhaps most critically though, Vance skewered Harris for the obvious discrepancy of effectively running away from her own three years as a leading figure in the self-styled Biden-Harris administration. When reminded by Kirk of the disconnect, he answered:
“Charlie, it, it takes a special level of shamelessness. Maybe I’ve only been in politics for two years, so I just haven’t reached that level, but to look at the American people, even though she’s reading off a teleprompter and to say, on day one, we’re going to make groceries and housing more affordable on day one. Kamala Harris says this, ‘We’re going to tackle the American southern border.’ Kamala, day one was 3 and a half years ago! What the hell have you been doing the whole time?”
Vance recovered from the momentary slip of profanity in the Church setting, mentioning that the pastors on hand were “going to have to forgive me because I do sometimes talk like my Mamaw, and she was a woman of a very serious Christian faith, but she did love the f-word every now and then.”
Pressing into the issue of fentanyl, Vance discussed his mother’s struggle with addiction and remarked that when she nearly died from an overdose during his childhood, surely, fentanyl would have killed her. He also addressed the child sex trafficking crisis noting, “This is what our government leaders have done. 320,000 kids, and we know, by the way, a lot of those kids have lost their lives.”
He continued, “A lot of those kids are being sex trafficked by some of the most evil people in the world. This is the wages of Kamala Harris’s disastrous border policy, and it’s happening every day in this country.
We have to remember that they told us that Kamala Harris was the compassionate person when it came to the border. Remember when they said Donald Trump is the person who wanted to separate families? Now the way that you keep families together is to send a message that if you want to come through to this country, you’ve got to come through the proper channels. When you empower these cartels, when you tell everybody that they can come across illegally, that’s what causes family separation on an industrial scale. Never let them tell you that Kamala Harris’s border policies are compassionate. There are 320,000 voices of children crying out telling us, Kamala Harris is not compassionate. She is a disaster, and we cannot promote her to the Oval Office.”
A progressive Democrat incumbent legislator is key to her party’s hopes of flipping both chambers in Arizona.
Mariana Sandoval is running for reelection to the Arizona House of Representatives in Legislative District 23. She was first elected in November 2022 and has served alongside Republican Michele Peña in the state House over the past two legislative sessions. In the House, Sandoval is a member of the Land, Agriculture & Rural Affairs Committee and the Ways & Means Committee.
On her campaign website, Sandoval proudly promotes endorsements from left-leaning organizations, including, Human Rights Campaign PAC, Save Our Schools Arizona, Living United for Change in Arizona, National Organization for Women Arizona Political Action Committee, Sierra Club, Arizona Education Association, Climate Cabinet, Moms Demand Action, and others.
Over her first term in office, Sandoval has proven that she does not share the values of many of the men and women who she represents. In 2023, she voted no on SB 1063, which would have “prohibit[ed] a city, town or other taxing jurisdiction from levying a transaction privilege tax, sales, use, franchise or other similar tax or fee on the sale of food and certain beverage items intended for home consumption.” After Republicans passed the bill out of both chambers, Democrat Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed it, writing, “From potential cuts to service – including public safety – to increased property taxes, it’s clear that this bill doesn’t actually eliminate costs for our residents.”
When Hobbs rejected the proposal, Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen blasted her decision in a statement. He said, Senate Republicans have been working toward introducing legislation necessary to provide financial relief to all Arizonans, especially low-income families who are feeling the tremendous burden of inflation. It’s very clear the governor has no interest in helping with that financial burden.”
Sandoval also opposed legislation that protected Arizona’s children. In February, she voted against HB 2586, which would have “add[ed] a new section of statute regulating the publishing and distribution of material harmful to minors on the internet.” Hobbs vetoed this bill, claiming that it went “against settled case law.” Other advocates for the proposal disagreed with Hobbs and her Democrat allies, including Arizona Women of Action. Amid the legislative process, the organization posted, “This nonpartisan bill needs SUPPORT. It would effectively protect AZ kids from accessing pornography. Age verification is a must.”
Terry Schilling, the president of the American Principles Project, also weighed in on the governor’s action. She said, “Up until now, protecting kids from online porn had been a cause with nearly unanimous, bipartisan support. Polls have shown the vast majority of American voters, across the political spectrum, back these laws. Both Democrat and Republican governors in a dozen states from Louisiana to Utah to Virginia have signed this legislation. And many more are on track to join this list shortly.”
This week, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs (@katiehobbs) vetoed HB 2586, which would have required that adult websites implement age verification in order to prevent minors from accessing pornographic content. pic.twitter.com/Mb8myTVpdD
Additionally, Sandoval opposed efforts to enhance safeguards for law-abiding Arizonans who have increasingly fallen prey to the rising tide of criminal activity across the state. This year, she voted against SCR 1021, which would “statutorily require an adult who is convicted of a class 2 felony for any child sex trafficking offense to be sentenced to natural life imprisonment.” The measure was passed by the Arizona Legislature and transmitted to the Secretary of State for inclusion on the November General Election ballot.
When the legislation was introduced, Senator Shawnna Bolick, the Republican sponsor of the effort, said, “We believe in holding traffickers accountable for their heinous crimes, and that’s why we’ve filed legislation for a ballot referral to put convicted child sex traffickers behind bars for life. Our message is clear: our children are not for sale, and we will not tolerate heinous crimes against them. Join us in this fight to protect our most precious resource – our children. Perpetrators, not here, not now, not never.”
According to the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission, Legislative District 23 has a competitive vote spread of 16.9% between Democrats and Republicans over the past nine state elections. Out of those elections, Democrats have won all nine contests.
Sandoval will run in November’s General Election alongside Matias Rosales, who emerged from the July 30 Primary Election for the Democrat Party. She obtained 9,194 votes, and Rosales acquired 6,811 votes. James Holmes finished third in the primary, garnering 2,919 votes.
Both Sandoval and Rosales will face off against Peña. In November 2022, Peña had more votes than either of her Democrat opponents with 12,850, compared to 10,101 for Sandoval and 8,030 for Jesus Lugo Jr.
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A crime bill intended to establish tougher sentences for commercial forms of sex crimes against children appears on track to hit Gov. Doug Ducey’s office, and the result is expected to be many more offenders being sentenced to mandatory life in prison.
Rep. Leo Biasiucci (R-LD5) introduced HB28898 in January to establish mandatory sentences and sentencing ranges for sex crimes involving children, particularly those involving victims under the age 15. The bill as introduced brought those sentences in line with other violent acts against children under Arizona’s definition of dangerous crimes against children (DCAC).
HB2889 passed the House on March 1 after Biasiucci amended his own bill to ensure someone ages 18 and 19 cannot be imprisoned for sexual exploitation of a minor related to a visual depiction if the victim is 15, 16, or 17, unless the charge involved the sale of the visual depiction.
Sexual exploitation of a minor covers several actions including consensual sexting among minors and other forms of child pornography.
Biasiucci’s bill, which had 13 co-sponsors, was then transmitted to the Senate where it passed March 25 after being amended again, this time turning the emphasis to sentencing mandates for child sex trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation of a minor, and repeat sex offenders.
Under the current form of HB2889, the mandatory prison sentence for an adult convicted of commercial sexual exploitation of a minor will be increased to a range of 13 to 27 years, or 23 years to 37 years for an offender with one predicate felony. Mandatory sentencing for child sex trafficking would increase to a range of 10 to 27 years, or 17 to 45 years for an offender with one predictive felony.
However, for crimes involving victims under age 15, an adult convicted of commercial sexual exploitation of a minor or child sex trafficking must be sentenced to natural life in prison if the person has previously been convicted of the same offense. And that natural life sentence will be ineligible under the bill for commutation, parole, work furlough, work release or release from confinement on any basis.
Because HB2889 was amended in the Senate, the House needs to be vote on and pass the current version before it heads to Ducey.
Commercial sexual exploitation of a minor encompasses a number of activities such transportation through or across state lines to facilitate a minor to engage in prostitution or exploitive exhibition for the purpose of producing a visual depiction or live act depicting such conduct, or getting a minor to expose specified body parts for financial or commercial gain such as through selling photography, digital images, or videos.
Child sex trafficking involves “knowingly causing any minor to engage in prostitution” as well as receiving any benefit on account of procuring or placing a minor in any place or in the charge or custody of any person for the purpose of prostitution. It also includes enticing, recruiting, harboring, providing, transporting, making a minor available to another person with the intent to cause the minor to engage in prostitution or any sexually explicit performance.
