Nick Schultz

For Assembly District 44 voters, Nick Schultz’s route to Sacramento runs through familiar layers of local government: the Los Feliz Neighborhood Council, the Central Area Planning Commission, the Burbank City Council and the mayor’s chair. His professional career has run through another part of government, from health-care enforcement to prosecutions involving public corruption, officer-involved shootings and financial fraud. Schultz won his Assembly seat in 2024 after finishing first in an eight-candidate primary and taking about 65.9% in November. Within weeks, Speaker Robert Rivas placed the new member at the head of the chamber’s public-safety committee. Schultz now brings a City Hall record on housing, homelessness, climate policy and public safety to a district where he has also made the American film industry a stated priority.

THE JOB BEFORE THE JOB

Nicholas Bernard Coolon Schultz was born on August 27, 1988, and raised by a single mother. He graduated from the University of Oregon and earned his law degree from the University of Oregon School of Law.

Schultz was admitted to the Oregon bar in 2013 and worked as a deputy district attorney in Lane County. After his admission to the California bar in 2014, he began working in 2016 as a deputy attorney general in the California Attorney General’s Health Quality Enforcement Section, working to ensure high-quality care for California patients.

In 2018, Schultz transferred to the California Department of Justice’s Special Prosecutions Section. The caseload primarily involved public corruption, officer-involved shootings, human trafficking, mortgage fraud, tax evasion and other financial fraud. That same year, he was elected to represent District D on the Los Feliz Neighborhood Council Governing Board, and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti appointed him to the Central Area Planning Commission. Schultz remained on the commission until 2020. Before running for the Burbank City Council, he had been active in Burbank and Los Angeles County Democratic clubs.

CITY HALL TO SACRAMENTO

Schultz ran for the Burbank City Council in 2020, placing second behind Konstantine Anthony and winning a council seat. In December 2023, the council elected him mayor, succeeding Anthony.

During his Burbank tenure, Schultz reopened the city’s local economy after the COVID-19 pandemic, spearheaded its landmark greenhouse gas reduction plan, and created record levels of housing, especially for low-income families. Burbank also reduced homelessness, maintained public safety and reduced violent crime during his tenure.

In 2024, Schultz entered the race to succeed Laura Friedman in the Assembly. He finished first among eight primary candidates, then faced Republican Tony Rodriguez in the general election. On November 5, Schultz won with 143,625 votes and approximately 65.9%.

The committee assignments came quickly. On December 27, 2024, Rivas appointed Schultz chair of the Assembly Committee on Public Safety. The speaker also assigned him to the Budget, Natural Resources, and Utilities & Energy committees. Those posts placed him on committees handling spending, environmental policy, energy policy and public safety. On March 11, 2025, Schultz named musician Lindsay Imber the district’s 2025 Woman of the Year.

THE POLICY SIGNATURE

Schultz’s policy record combines his work as a prosecutor with the municipal concerns he handled in Burbank. His public-safety record includes work in special prosecutions, reduced violent crime during his Burbank tenure and his current chairmanship of the Assembly Committee on Public Safety. His assignments on Budget, Natural Resources, and Utilities & Energy also intersect with areas that include his City Hall work on housing and greenhouse-gas reduction.

The constituencies and interests named in his record include patients receiving health care, low-income families seeking housing, people experiencing homelessness and the American film industry. Schultz has made support for the American film industry an Assembly priority. His argument is statewide as well as local: when production leaves Los Angeles, he has said, California is hurt too.

Schultz has brought to the Assembly a defined set of offices and responsibilities: health-care enforcement, special prosecutions, neighborhood and planning bodies, a City Council and a mayoralty. His current Assembly roles include chairing Public Safety and serving on the Budget, Natural Resources, and Utilities & Energy committees. Those assignments follow a Burbank record that includes public safety, housing, homelessness and greenhouse-gas reduction, while his Assembly priorities include support for the American film industry.