Here’s one flip-flop Kamala Harris hasn’t made — yet.
The vice president and Democratic nominee has expressed support for decriminalizing prostitution, both as a senator from California and as San Francisco district attorney.
But with the 59-year-old up for the highest office in the land, the campaign has refused to say whether that stance holds.
Harris last commented on whether she thinks “sex work” should be legal for consenting adults back in 2019, during her failed run for the White House.
“I think so, I do,” Harris told the Root in an interview at the time
“I think that we have to understand, though, that it is not as simple as that. … There’s an ecosystem around that, that includes crimes that harm people. And for those issues, I do not believe that anybody who hurts another human being or profits off of their exploitation should be … free of criminal prosecution.”
Harris especially was keen on arresting “pimps” and “johns” rather than prostitutes themselves, she said.
But for “consenting adults,” Harris reiterated, “we should really consider that we can’t criminalize consensual behavior as long as no one is being harmed.”
The veep made similar remarks back in 2003, during her first campaign for San Francisco DA.
“Consensual sex between consenting adults should not be a subject of prosecution,” Harris said, according to an archived copy of AsianWeek — a now-defunct publication serving the city’s East Asian community — reviewed by The Post.
Harris added at the time that she thought prostitution was entwined with violent crime and victimization, and added that she was committed to prosecuting “sexual abusers” and “statutory rapists.”
“I don’t think there should [be] a blanket approach one way or another to the issue of prostitution, in particular when we deal with the prostitution of children, and we know that in San Francisco, we have a real epidemic with that,” she said at the time.
In 2008, however, Harris came out against Proposition K, a ballot measure that would have decriminalized prostitution in San Francisco by forbidding police from using public resources to investigate it.
“I think it’s completely ridiculous, just in case there’s any ambiguity about my position,” Harris said of the measure, according to the New York Times. “It would put a welcome mat out for pimps and prostitutes to come on into San Francisco.”
“We’re in the practice and habit of protecting victims, not criminalizing victims,” Harris added at the time.
Proposition K failed, with 59% of San Francisco voters expressing opposition.
Harris was slow to provide concrete policy proposals after replacing President Biden as the Democratic nominee for the 2024 election.
Her policy agenda does not mention anything about prostitution — and her campaign has refused to respond to several inquiries from The Post about her current position.
