Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, signed a bill into law on Monday banning hate speech from state voter guides.
The bill, AB 1853, prohibits candidate statements that attack a specific person or group, include external links to anywhere other than the candidate’s campaign website or contain false or misleading claims or hateful or discriminatory content. The bill was introduced after a candidate statement was published in California’s official June 2026 voter information guide with conspiracy theories, including blaming Israel for the 9/11 terror attacks.
Gail Pellerin, a Democratic member of the California State Assembly who is Jewish, co-authored the bill.
“With today’s bill signing, California is putting an end to the loophole that allows hateful, racist and bigoted content unrelated to a candidate’s fitness for office to appear in a publication voters expect to find trusted information,” she stated.
“This milestone wouldn’t have been possible without the tremendous effort of Assembly Elections Committee staff, the support of my colleagues in the legislature and the coalition-building that Jewish California did around AB 1853,” she said.
