Presidential Election Outcome

270 electoral votes to win:

• Donald Trump (Republican): 312 electoral votes, 50.1% popular vote
• Kamala Harris (Democrat): 226 electoral votes, 48.4% popular vote

Overview

• Since the election, we have learned who President Trump has nominated to his cabinet but we do not yet know all Trump appointees nor which councils and offices he will create during his administration or possibly continue from the Biden administration. While we wait to gain a complete picture of what a Trump administration will look like, we can refer to what he did under his last administration and what campaign promises he made during this most recent election for clues on what to expect in the next four years. Below is an overview of what we know at this point that is relevant to sex workers’ rights and safety and what we can learn from his last administration to better prepare ourselves.

Policy Issues

• 2017-2021 Trump Administration: Civil and Human Rights Rollbacks
• Issue Areas from Trump’s Previous Administration (this is the archived “achievements” and policy focus according to Trump from his last administration) – of relevance to sex worker rights:
  • Immigration
  • Law & Justice
  • Healthcare
  • Infrastructure & Technology

Executive Offices and Councils

• Relevant Executive Offices and Councils from the previous Trump Administration which may be in the next administration and provide opportunities or challenges for administrative advocacy:
  • Council of Economic Advisors
  • Council on Environmental Quality
  • Office of Management and Budget
  • Office of National Drug Control Policy
  • Office of Science and Technology Policy
• There may be offices and councils from the Biden administration that Trump will shutter, as evidenced by the ending of the Obama administration’s Council on Women and Girls during his first administration. Relevant Biden administration Offices and Councils Trump may not continue or may change significantly include:
  • Gender Policy Council
  • Office of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator
  • Office of National Drug Control Policy
  • Office of Science and Technology Policy
  • Climate Policy Office

Cabinet

• Trump will select his Cabinet to head 15 executive departments. The Senate votes on these selections, and given Republican Senate control, Trump’s selections are likely to move through this process without significant opposition. Trump has also been demanding recess appointments, making the appointment process easier and giving him more power to unilaterally select his Cabinet without the usual check provided by the Senate confirmation process. There is still a lot of speculation about who Trump will pick for his cabinet, and it is something to monitor in the coming days, weeks, and months, including once the Senate confirmation process is underway. Relevant Secretary positions to monitor include:
  • Attorney General (Head of Department of Justice): Matt Gaetz
    • The Department of Justice investigated him on suspicion of sex trafficking. The prosecutors did not recommend bringing charges but his associate Joel Greenberg was convicted of sex trafficking a minor and was sentenced to 11 years in prison. There has been a backlash to this nomination, but it may not be sufficient to block his confirmation by the Senate.
    • The House Ethics Committee is currently investigating whether Rep. Gaetz violated sex trafficking laws.
    • In his current role as House Representative for Florida’s first district, Rep. Gaetz voted against FOSTA. This vote came while Rep. Gaetz was under investigation by the Department of Justice for sex trafficking.
  • Secretary of Homeland Security: Kristi Noem
  • Secretary of Health and Human Services: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
  • Secretary of State: Marco Rubio
  • Secretary of Commerce: TBD
  • Secretary of Education: TBD
  • Secretary of Housing and Urban Development: TBD
  • Secretary of Labor: TBD
  • Secretary of Transportation: TBD
  • *Secretary of Treasury: TBD
• There are additional roles to be mindful of, such as the deputy chief of staff for policy position, which Trump assigned to Stephen Miller. Miller is a staunch opponent of immigration and caused significant harm while working within the last Trump administration. Some of these roles include:
  • White House Chief of Staff: Suzie Wiles
  • Border Czar: Tom Homan
  • UN Ambassador: Elise Stefanik
  • Co-Department Chiefs of Government Efficiency: Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy
    • This is a new Department that Trump has stated will help “dismantle Government Bureaucracy.” While it sounds like it is part of the federal government, it will actually operate as a consulting arm, existing outside the government.
    • Musk is a billionaire tech entrepreneur who notably purchased Twitter (renamed X) in 2022.
  • Director of the Office of Management and Budget: TBD
  • Administrator of the Small Business Administration: TBD

*Financial Regulators

• There are various opportunities for advocacy to address and stop financial discrimination against sex workers. Some of this comes from the Department of Treasury, which the President has influence over, but intentional boundaries are created to limit the influence of the President and Congress over other financial regulators. These guardrails between some financial regulators and presidential administrations create unique opportunities for advocacy. This document provides a lengthy overview of the US financial regulatory system. The Free Speech Coalition is also an excellent resource for addressing financial discrimination against sex workers and advocating directly to financial regulators.

Task Forces

• In addition to Trump’s Cabinet and Executive Offices, there are additional opportunities for advocacy at the federal level. These opportunities will provide varying degrees of direct interaction with the Trump administration. One opportunity is through the President’s Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, managed through the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons and includes representatives from several other federal agencies and offices. The Task Force is advised by the US Advisory Council on Human Trafficking, which is made up of subject matter experts with lived trafficking experience. The current Council includes advisors who are favorable to sex worker rights and decriminalization and were appointed by Biden to a two-year term in 2024.
• This is an area to monitor to see what the Trump administration does in relation to starting new Task Forces or engaging in activities under current Task Forces relevant to sex workers. This may include work under the Trump administration’s previous Task Force Office for Missing and Murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Project 2025

• While campaigning, Trump tried to distance himself from Project 2025. Still, many members of his first administration developed it, and his Vice President JD Vance has ties to its authoring organization, the Heritage Foundation. Relevant concerns from what the project terms its “presidential transition project” include:
  • Targeting and harming the rights of trans people and the LGBTQIA+ community more broadly
  • Implementing policies that would target migrants and increase detainment of migrants for deportation processing
  • Harmful changes to the US education system and shuttering of the Department of Education
  • Targeting the adult film industry to ban pornography
  • Interfering with access to reproductive healthcare, including abortions

Federal Courts

• This document provides an overview of the judgeship appointment process in the US federal court system.
• As seen during Trump’s first administration, he had significant influence in nominating Supreme Court justices, court of appeals judges, and district court judges. We can expect to see this happen under his next administration with the potential for one or more current Supreme Court justices retiring or dying, allowing Trump to nominate a younger conservative justice who would be on the court for potentially decades to come. Since the Republicans will control Congress, Trump judgeship nominees will have an easier time being appointed. This is a critical area to monitor at the local level. Judges have significant influence over:
  • Voting rights
  • Reproductive rights
  • Economic and labor rights
  • Criminal law
  • Education
  • Civil rights
  • Government structure
  • Judicial selection and administration
• This is a helpful resource for understanding the role of our courts better.

Supreme Court Cases to Watch

• Although not directly tied to the recent election, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case that will significantly impact sex workers and free speech broadly. The Supreme Court will hear arguments in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton on January 15, 2025. Here’s an overview of the case from FSC and the organization’s broader fight against Age Verification laws.
• On December 4, 2024, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in U.S. v. Skrmetti. This case focuses on trans youth’s access to gender-affirming medical care and whether states can ban gender-affirming care. The plaintiffs in the case sued the State of Tennessee to block the state’s ban on medically necessary gender-affirming care for Tennessee’s transgender youth. We hope to see the court rule in favor of the plaintiffs. Here is an overview of the case from the ACLU and an interview with the ACLU’s lead attorney.

Overview

• Several critical outcomes from state-level ballot initiatives were relevant to sex worker rights. Here’s a helpful analysis indicating that voters backed progressive policy measures, with some important exceptions around drug policy and the criminal legal system.

Abortion Access

10 states voted on issues related to abortion access

• The following states voted to protect abortion access in their states’ constitutions
  • Arizona
  • Colorado
  • Maryland
  • Missouri
  • Montana
  • Nevada
  • New York
• The following states voted against protecting abortion access in their states’ constitutions.
  • Florida
    • Received 57% of the vote in favor of abortion access, but in Florida, ballot initiatives must receive at least 60% of the vote to pass
  • South Dakota
• Nebraska had two abortion-related ballot initiatives – the results mean that voters in the state did not protect abortion access and instead chose to enshrine the state’s current abortion ban after 12 weeks into their state constitution. The results of both ballot initiatives are bad for people seeking abortions.
  • A ballot initiative to protect abortion access in the state constitution: failed
  • A ballot initiative to uphold the 12-week abortion ban: succeeded

Cannabis Legalization and Drug Policy

Five states voted on issues related to drug policy

• Three states voted on legalizing recreational cannabis, but all of these efforts failed:
  • Florida
    • Received 55% of the vote to approve legalization, but in Florida, ballot initiatives must receive 60% of the vote to pass.
  • North Dakota
  • South Dakota
• Nebraska voters passed two bills to legalize and regulate medical cannabis.
• Massachusetts became the first state with a psychedelic drugs legalization measure on the ballot to reject it (meaning the measure did not pass). In prior years, voters in Colorado, Oregon, and DC have passed decriminalization or legalization measures for certain psychedelics.

Labor Rights

Five states voted on issues related to labor rights, including changes to minimum wages, tips, and sick leave

• Positive Result for Labor Rights: The following states voted to raise the minimum wage and require paid sick leave:
  • Missouri
  • Alaska
• Positive Result for Labor Rights: The following state rejected an attempt to lower wages for tipped workers:
  • Arizona
• Negative Result for Labor Rights: The following state rejected raising the minimum wage for tipped workers:
  • Massachusetts
• Undecided: The following state is undecided on a minimum wage increase
  • California’s ballot initiative to raise the minimum wage is still undecided

Elections and Voting

19 states voted on election procedures and voter access issues. The issues on the ballots included voter ID, citizenship requirements, rank choice voting, absentee voting, requirements for partisan primaries, and redistricting. Results of all ballot initiatives are available here.

• Of note:
  • Connective voted to expand access to absentee voting
  • Washington, DC, voted to allow voters not registered with a political party to participate in primaries and established ranked-choice voting for all elections

Marriage

• The following three states approved amendments to remove outdated language banning same-sex marriage from their state constitutions. These measures were largely symbolic since the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in 2015.
  • California
  • Colorado
  • Hawaii

Immigration and Drug Policy

• Arizona voted to allow state and local police to enforce immigration laws and increase penalties for the sale of fentanyl

Criminal Legal System

• California passed Prop 36, which is a “tough-on-crime” measure that will increase penalties for people with multiple theft- and drug-related convictions.
• California and Nevada voted on removing language from their state constitutions that allow for slavery and involuntary servitude as a punishment for a crime. Nevada passed the measure and California is still too close to call. Nevada has joined eight other states in passing such measures in recent years.

Overview

• We are still analyzing the results of state and local elections while looking to our partners to defend sexual freedom and expression throughout the country and to better understand how these elections will impact communities in the years ahead. Below is a snapshot of what we are seeing so far in relation to progress made and new challenges presented by these latest results.

Governors

• There will be a record number of women in Gubernatorial offices: a total of thirteen

State Legislators

• Good news:
  • Julia Salazar (D), the lead sponsor of the New York State sex work decriminalization bill, won her re-election bid to continue representing her district in the State Senate.
• Bad news:
  • Jean Schmidt (R) won her re-election bid to represent her district in Ohio’s State House. Schmidt has pushed for increasing prosecutions against sex workers’ clients and third parties.

District Attorneys

Prosecutors play a critical role in deciding whether to pursue charges against sex workers, clients, and third parties. They can reduce the harm of the criminal legal system by refusing to pursue such charges, or they can utilize the system to penalize people involved in the sex trade.

• Since 2020, we have seen a reversal in support for progressive DAs, which continued with Los Angeles County DA George Gascon losing his election to a “tough-on-crime” candidate. DA Gascon had previously made it his office’s policy not to prosecute people for prostitution charges. However, this policy did not extend to clients or third parties.
• In Harris County, Texas, which includes Houston, progressive DA candidate Sean Teare won the election. In campaigning for the role, he said he would use the position to, “…fight for reproductive rights, seek justice for survivors of domestic violence, lead on gun violence prevention, ensure second chances for those who deserve it, fix the ‘broken cash bail system,’ and eliminate the criminal court backlog.”

Overview

• Throughout this next Trump administration, Woodhull Freedom Foundation will remain committed to our work: fighting censorship, eliminating discrimination based on gender or sexual identity or family form, and protecting the right to engage in consensual sexual activity and expression. We do this through advocacy, education, and coalition building.
• We rely on our partners to defend and protect everyone’s human rights. Below we include some partners in allied movements who will be crucial in reducing the harms of a second Trump presidency.

Immigration

• Sex Workers Project of the Urban Justice Center
• Colectivo Intercultural TRANSgrediendo 

Tech

• Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Center for Democracy and Technology
• Fight for the Future

First Amendment / Freedom of Expression

• ACLU

Reproductive Justice

• SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective

Anti-Trafficking

• Freedom Network USA

Harm Reduction and Drug Policy

• National Harm Reduction Coalition
• Drug Policy Alliance

LGBTQIA+ Rights 

• National LGBTQ Task Force
• Transgender Law Center
• Lambda Legal

HIV/AIDS Policy

• AIDSUnited