Isaac Bryan

Before his Assembly election, Isaac Bryan worked at UCLA and in the mayor’s Office of Reentry, issued reports on interactions between students and the Los Angeles School Police Department, and helped lead a county funding initiative. He co-chaired Measure J, the county initiative approved by more than 2.1 million voters to divert money toward community investment and alternatives to incarceration. At UCLA, he led a project aimed at connecting Black scholarship with public-policy decisions and examined interactions between school police and students. In 2021, he moved from that work into the Assembly by winning a six-candidate special election. His legislative record has included criminal justice, poverty, foster youth and other public-policy issues.

BACKGROUND AND FORMATION

Bryan was born Jan. 16, 1992, in Dallas to a teenage mother living in poverty who gave him up at birth. He was adopted as an infant. His family fostered hundreds of children over two decades and adopted Bryan and eight others from the child welfare system.

He has lived in California since sixth grade and attended seven public schools and two California community colleges before earning a bachelor’s degree in political science and sociology from the University of Arizona. At the Rombach Institute on Crime, Delinquency and Corrections, he worked as a research fellow on juvenile justice and criminal justice reform. He also worked with a team of federal monitors to enforce a U.S. Department of Justice consent decree with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.

Bryan later earned a Master of Public Policy from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. Named a David Bohnett Foundation fellow in 2017, he served in Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Office of Reentry and co-authored the city’s first report on the holistic needs of Angelenos involved with the justice system.

THE JOB BEFORE THE JOB

At UCLA, Bryan became the founding director of the Black Policy Project, created to build connections between Black scholarship at the university and public-policy decision-making. He also served as director of Public Policy for the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies and authored numerous studies and reports. He regularly provided media commentary on racial inequality in the United States.

With the Million Dollar Hoods Project, Bryan issued reports examining interactions between students and the Los Angeles School Police Department. During the summer of 2020, after the murder of George Floyd, he led peaceful protests in Los Angeles. He also articulated “defunding police” as a call to question the size of tax contributions to policing and criminalization at the expense of social services.

Bryan co-chaired Los Angeles County’s Measure J. Approved by more than 2.1 million voters, the measure diverts at least 10% of county general funds to address the disproportionate impact of racial injustice through community investment and alternatives to incarceration. He continued to write and provide commentary on policing and justice reform, including the need to end the criminalization of poverty.

THE ASSEMBLY RECORD

Bryan announced his Assembly candidacy in 2021 to succeed fellow Democrat Sydney Kamlager. His campaign drew endorsements from many people across Los Angeles. Facing five other candidates, he secured more than 50% in the primary, won the special election for the 54th District outright and was sworn into office.

In the Legislature, Bryan established the UCLA Center on Reproductive Health Law and Policy and a registry for people living with ALS. He improved student health-insurance coverage, expanded restorative-justice practices and shut down California’s largest urban oil field.

Bryan also ended prison gerrymandering and returned millions in stolen foster-youth benefits. He started a select committee on Poverty and Economic Inclusion.

Bryan is a member of the California Legislative Progressive Caucus. In 2024, he was elected vice-chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus.

THE THROUGH LINE

Bryan’s documented work repeatedly includes criminal justice and poverty. Measure J diverted at least 10% of county general funds toward community investment and alternatives to incarceration. In the Legislature, he ended prison gerrymandering and expanded restorative-justice practices.

Groups identified in his work include people with justice-system involvement, students encountering school police, foster youth and people living in poverty. His legislative work also included establishing a registry for people living with ALS, improving student health-insurance coverage, shutting down an urban oil field and establishing a reproductive-health law and policy center.

The overlap between poverty and government authority appears throughout that record. Bryan co-authored a report on the needs of Angelenos with justice-system involvement, issued reports on interactions between students and school police, provided commentary on racial inequality, advocated ending the criminalization of poverty, co-chaired a county funding measure, and pursued legislative actions involving prison gerrymandering, foster-youth benefits, restorative justice and a committee on poverty and economic inclusion.