By Kaitlyn Schallhorn
Editor’s note: Sacramento Snapshot is a weekly series during the legislative session detailing what Orange County’s representatives in the Assembly and Senate are working on — from committee work to bill passages and more.
Former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband were assassinated in their home in June. Three months later, conservative activist Charlie Kirk was fatally shot while speaking at a Utah college event.
These and other recent harrowing instances of political violence prompted Assemblymember Laurie Davies, R-Laguna Niguel, to file a bill last week that would add political affiliation to the list of classifications defining a hate crime in California.
Assembly Bill 1535 is dubbed the Hortman-Kirk Political Violence Prevention Act, defining political affiliation as “belonging to a political party, the endorsement of a political party or platform of a political party, or the endorsement of a politician or platform of a politician.”
California law already designates a hate crime as being committed because of the victim’s real or perceived disability, gender, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion and/or sexual orientation, the bill noted.
And the state already offers protection for political affiliation for certain things, including housing rights and employment, Davies said.
The bill “is about lowering the political temperature and establishing strict penalties; it sets a clear boundary,” Davies said. “Looking at last year with the horrific murders of Melissa Hortman and Charlie Kirk, it was time that something had to be done.”
Hortman helped pass Democratic initiatives in the Minnesota statehouse, including free lunches for public school students, and helped break a budget impasse that threatened to shut down the state government last year.
Kirk was an ally of President Donald Trump and founded Turning Point USA, a student group that rallies conservatives on college campuses.
Both deaths in 2025 sparked concerns and condemnations among Democrats and Republicans alike about political violence in the U.S.
Paul Pelosi, the husband of former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was severely injured when a man broke into his San Francisco home in 2022, assaulting him and demanding to see his wife. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home was intentionally set on fire last year while the Democratic chief executive and his family were inside asleep. And Trump, while campaigning in Pennsylvania in 2024, was injured in an assassination attempt.
“Our nation was founded on political freedoms,” Davies said. “However, political violence is detrimental to our democracy and shouldn’t be tolerated.”
“AB 1535 isn’t just about protecting Californians; it’s about a cultural reset,” she added. “It’s a commitment to the idea that every Californian has the right to their political views without fear of being targeted by those who see them as an enemy rather than a neighbor.”
The bill was introduced the first week California legislators returned to Sacramento for the 2026 session. A hearing has not yet been scheduled.
In other news:
Assemblymember Diane Dixon, R-Newport Beach, was also quick to introduce a new bill at the start of the legislative session. This one aims to expand human trafficking data reporting by requiring additional information to be recorded and published on the state’s criminal justice data website, Open Justice.
AB 1541 would add the number of arrests and convictions, as well as the number of victims of adult sex trafficking, child sex trafficking and labor trafficking, to be among the information recorded there.
“This bill will address critical shortages in the public reporting of human trafficking crimes and will give us clarity on how many individuals are being arrested for perpetrating these heinous crimes,” Dixon said. “In addition, having data regarding the number of convictions will provide a clear picture on how successful we are at removing the perpetrators of human trafficking from our streets.”
Sen. Monique Limón, D-Santa Barbara, is the new state Senate president pro tempore. She is a former school board member who worked in higher education for 14 years. Limón is also the first Latina and first mother to serve in that leadership post, Senate Democrats noted.
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