Warren Now Open To Decriminalizing Sex Work. Sanders Follows Her

Massachusetts Senator and Progressive Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has been surging in recent polls, the most recent two of which show her overtaking Progressive Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, to move into second place in the race to win the party’s 2020 nomination, behind former Vice President Joe Biden, who remains the current frontrunner. But on Wednesday, Warren added another welcome plank to her platform, becoming the fifth 2020 candidate in the field to publicly state her support—at least in a limited way—for decriminalizing sex work. “I’m open to decriminalization,” Warren said in a statement issued in response to a question from a Washington Post reporter. “Sex workers, like all workers, deserve autonomy but they are particularly vulnerable to physical and financial abuse and hardship.” Warren added, however, that decriminalization should not “undermine legal protections for the most vulnerable, including the millions of individuals who are victims of human trafficking each year.” As AVN.com reported last week, only four candidates—and only two who are currently polling above two percent—were willing to go on the record supporting sex work decriminalization at that time. Those two candidates were California Senator Kamala Harris, and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker. But now Warren has added her name to that list. But less than 24 hours after Warren issued her statement supporting decriminalization, Sanders—who had previously said the issue was “a good question” for which he had no answer—also went on the record saying, in a statement through a campaign spokesperson, “decriminalization is certainly something that should be considered.” As The Washington Post reported, Warren’s surge past him in two recent polls appears to have induced “panic” in Sanders. Though Sanders has fashioned himself as the spearhead of a progressive political “revolution,” Warren now leads Sanders among voters who call themselves “liberal” by eight points, 25-17, according to a new Monmouth University poll.  While decriminalizing sex work appears to have become a trending issue favored by liberal Democrats, on the other side of the spectrum, Donald Trump supporters appear ready to use the issue against them. On Tueday in a Twitter post, Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.—who has hinted that he could become a presidential candidate himself in the 2024 election—wrote that the effort to “normalize” sex work was an example of “how deranged the left is,” adding, “Nothing is sacred to these sickos and they’re influencing our youth.” Photo By Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia Commons