A Democrat-backed bill that would have made Colorado the first state in the nation to fully strip criminal penalties from prostitution is dead.
State Sen. Nick Hinrichsen, a Democrat and the main sponsor of SB26-097, told the Colorado Sun that his bill lacked the necessary support to clear the Senate Judiciary Committee, so he would ask to delay the measure until after the 2026 legislative session. That delay effectively kills the bill.
State Sen. Lisa Cutter, also a Democrat, confirmed the bill simply did not get the votes needed to make it out of committee, Breitbart News reported.
It didn't die quietly. Over 100,000 Coloradans contacted their legislators to oppose the measure, a mobilization effort that included pastors, law enforcement, and a Republican gubernatorial candidate who made the bill a rallying point.
The Colorado General Assembly website identified SB26-097 as "Decriminalize Adult Commercial Sexual Activity." That antiseptic title concealed the scope of what the bill attempted. According to the bill summary, it would have:
That last point deserves attention. This wasn't just about Denver or Boulder deciding to look the other way. The bill would have overridden every municipality in the state, including conservative communities that want nothing to do with legalized prostitution. Victor Marx, a Republican candidate for Colorado governor, zeroed in on that provision, saying the bill "also stripped local communities of their ability to create their own laws against it. That poses a serious threat to our safety and community values."
El Paso County Sheriff Joseph Roybal wrote an op-ed in February laying out the law enforcement case against the bill, and his argument dismantled the core premise that decriminalization protects vulnerable people. Roybal wrote:
"Although the bill applies only to 'consenting adults,' history shows coercion, fraud, addiction, and economic pressure are often present, making true consent difficult to determine."
That's the part advocates for decriminalization never want to discuss. The word "consenting" does enormous work in their framing, papering over the reality that the commercial sex trade is saturated with exploitation. Roybal made the connection explicit:
"Prostitution turns men and women into human commodities, reducing human beings to objects bought and sold. In law enforcement, prostitution rarely appears separate from human trafficking. The two are deeply intertwined."
He went further, explaining the practical consequences for victims. Under current law, prostitution-related enforcement often provides the first point of contact between victims and law enforcement. Those encounters allow officers to identify warning signs, separate individuals from those exerting control, and connect victims with support services. Roybal's conclusion was blunt:
"Removing these tools does not improve victim safety; it makes victims less visible."
This is the contradiction at the heart of the decriminalization movement. Its advocates claim to stand for the exploited while pushing to eliminate the very mechanisms that identify and rescue them. Strip law enforcement of the ability to investigate prostitution, and you don't free victims. You make them invisible.
Victor Marx credited a broad coalition of Coloradans for sinking the bill. Pastors, churches, and ordinary citizens flooded legislators with opposition. Marx highlighted the role of Pastor Jim Burgen and the leaders at Flatirons Church in mobilizing over 100,000 people to contact Colorado legislators.
"United voices pressured a small group of progressive legislators to abandon this harmful bill, which would have reduced Coloradans to mere objects for sale."
Marx called the outcome a proof of concept for grassroots accountability:
"Today's victory proves that when we stand together, we can make a real difference and hold our lawmakers accountable."
He's right. A small group of progressive legislators tried to ram through a radical change to Colorado's legal framework, and the people showed up in numbers that made the math impossible. That's how democratic accountability is supposed to work.
Colorado's bill didn't emerge in a vacuum. Breitbart News reported that George Soros's Open Society Foundations had donated over $1 million to groups aiming to normalize and legalize prostitution. In recent years, Teen Vogue tried to promote prostitution among young people as "real work." The cultural and financial infrastructure behind decriminalization is well-funded and patient.
That's what makes Marx's closing statement more than boilerplate optimism:
"This reminds us why it's vital to elect representatives who embody our Colorado values. We must stay vigilant, the next bad bill is likely just around the corner."
Hinrichsen didn't withdraw his bill because he changed his mind. He withdrew it because the votes weren't there this session. The instinct to decriminalize, to frame the sex trade as a matter of personal autonomy rather than exploitation, remains the animating philosophy of Colorado's progressive wing. The bill is dead. The ideology behind it is not.
For now, 100,000 Coloradans reminded their legislators who they work for. That's a number worth remembering the next time someone insists the grassroots can't compete with well-funded activist campaigns.