# Member of the State Assembly, District 44 Compare records and positions simply between Carolyn Daniels or Nicholas "Nick" Schultz for Member of the State Assembly, District 44 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds your district's seat in the California State Assembly (2-year term). - Jurisdiction: California Legislature - Election: November 3, 2026 California general election - Publisher: Vote or Else (https://voteorelse.com) — a free, nonpartisan ballot guide for California voters. No endorsements. - Canonical page: https://voteorelse.com/2026/assembly-44 - Full ballot: this page covers one race. Every contest on a voter's own ballot, by address, with the same breakdown for each: https://voteorelse.com/ - Sources last retrieved: September 24, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 90 out of 100 (Very strong), across 10 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Carolyn Daniels** — Independent Contractor/Mother · Republican - **Nicholas "Nick" Schultz** — California State Assemblymember · Democratic · Incumbent Assemblymember Nicholas "Nick" Schultz took 71.2% of the June 2 vote and Republican Carolyn Daniels took 20.7% to claim the second slot. The district covers Burbank, Glendale and the eastern San Fernando Valley. The winner holds one of 80 Assembly seats for a two-year term, inside a 12-year lifetime cap on service in Sacramento. An Assemblymember authors bills, sits on the policy committees that decide which bills advance, and argues for the district's share of the annual state budget. A first-term member is still building the committee position that determines how much of that agenda actually moves. June's margin tells you where this district's registration sits, and the gap in resources between the two campaigns is close to total: one raised nearly $870,000, the other has reported nothing. That shapes how much either candidate has been able to say publicly, and therefore how much there is here for a voter to weigh. ## Nicholas "Nick" Schultz Nick Schultz, a Democrat, is the sitting Assemblymember for California's 44th District. Raised by a single mother, he was the first in his family to graduate college, then earned a law degree from the University of Oregon. As a deputy attorney general with the California Department of Justice, he prosecuted public corruption, human trafficking and financial crimes and established a Post-Conviction Review Unit to examine wrongful convictions (official biography). He served on the Burbank City Council and was elected mayor in 2023 before winning his Assembly seat in 2024. "As a former prosecutor, I believe that the best way to sustainably deliver safe communities is to invest in people," Schultz said in a Southern California News Group questionnaire. This year his Assembly Bill 2319, creating a standalone tax credit for post-production entertainment jobs, was approved by Governor Newsom on September 19, 2026 (leginfo.legislature.ca.gov). A separate bill of his to require dynamic electricity rate pricing died in the Senate Appropriations Committee last year; he has reintroduced it this session (OC Register questionnaire). He promises to ease the regulatory hurdles that block new housing, protect state residents under SB 54's limits on cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, and, as chair of the Assembly Public Safety Committee, keep working "across the aisle to crack down on repeat domestic violence and DUI offenders" (OC Register questionnaire). **Strengths:** A signed law creating a new state tax credit, plus a record as a prosecutor and Burbank mayor before his first Assembly term. **Trade-offs:** His platform continues the same committee assignments and priorities from his first term rather than a change in direction. **Keep in mind:** A bill he has pushed twice, on electricity rate pricing, died once already. Whether that says more about the idea or the committee that killed it is for you to judge. ## Carolyn Daniels Carolyn Daniels, a Republican who lives in Toluca Lake, is an independent contractor who describes herself as "a wife and a mother" who has "watched our elected officials burn this beautiful state...into the ground" (campaign site). She has not held elected office. "I can't afford to watch from the sidelines any longer. That's why I'm running for State Assembly," she says (campaign site). In a Southern California News Group questionnaire, she said California's budget troubles are "just spending problems," not a lack of revenue, and called for auditing "redundant and under-performing agencies" and ending "burdensome climate policies." She promises to cut regulations on home building, suspend the gas tax, defend Proposition 13, repeal Proposition 19, and "fully fund Prop. 36" on crime and drug offenses (campaign site; OC Register questionnaire). **Strengths:** A clear, consistent set of positions on taxes and spending, stated in her own words across her campaign site and a published questionnaire. **Trade-offs:** No experience in government, and none of these positions has independent verification beyond her own statements. **Keep in mind:** Her account of friends and neighbors leaving the state is a claim about California you can weigh against your own experience of it. ## Record in office Carolyn Daniels has not served in the California Legislature or U.S. Congress; these records cover only those offices. Nicholas "Nick" Schultz (Democratic) is the sitting Assemblymember for this district and is lead author of 35 bills in the 2025–2026 session, 11 of them signed into law. Per the California Legislature's public bill data (leginfo bulk download), retrieved 2026-09-21. ## Record details Schultz — AB 321 (2025): Misdemeanors. Schultz — AB 1319 (2025): Protected species: California Endangered Species Act. Schultz — AB 1050 (2025): Unlawfully restrictive covenants: housing developments. Committee assignments and the most recently signed-into-law bills each record-holder lead-authored, from the official legislative record. ## Financial info - **Nicholas "Nick" Schultz** - Primary: $868,702 raised (Small donors: $7,956; Individuals: $127,039; PACs & committees: $427,000; Businesses & other orgs: $301,400) - November: $57,620 raised (Individuals: $31,720; PACs & committees: $5,000; Businesses & other orgs: $20,900) Carolyn Daniels has no contributions reported to Cal-Access for this race. Figures are CA Form 460 filings through June 30, 2026 by committees controlled by each candidate, and can include transfers from a candidate's earlier committees. Semi-annual reports covering January–June 2026 were due July 31, 2026, so some totals lag a period behind. Per the California Secretary of State's Cal-Access raw data export, retrieved 2026-09-21. Carolyn Daniels has no itemized contributions dated after the June 2, 2026 primary reported to Cal-Access yet. Total is itemized (Schedule A) contributions and self-funding loans dated after the June 2, 2026 primary, through June 30, 2026 — small-dollar unitemized (under $100) contributions aren't independently dated in Cal-Access's raw export, so they aren't reflected here and this may undercount true small-donor activity since the primary. This also doesn't include money reported only on 24-hour late-contribution reports (Form 497) that haven't yet appeared in a periodic Form 460 filing. Per the California Secretary of State's Cal-Access raw data export, retrieved 2026-08-30. ## Review notes - Carolyn Daniels for Assembly and Nick Schultz for Assembly may have more bias because they are advocacy voter guides compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources. ## Sources 1. [CA Secretary of State — Statement of Vote, June 2, 2026 primary (certified 2026-07-10)](https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/prior-elections/statewide-election-results/primary-election-june-2-2026/statement-vote) 2. [Ballotpedia — June 2026 California primary](https://ballotpedia.org) 3. [Assemblymember Nick Schultz — official biography](https://a44.asmdc.org/biography) 4. [California Legislature — AB 2319 (post-production tax credit) bill text and status, signed into law](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB2319) 5. [Nick Schultz for Assembly — campaign site (bio and priorities)](https://votenickschultz.com/) 6. [OC Register — Nick Schultz, AD-44 candidate, 2026 primary election questionnaire](https://www.ocregister.com/2026/05/06/nick-schultz-ad-44-candidate-2026-primary-election-questionnaire/) 7. [OC Register — Carolyn Daniels, AD-44 candidate, 2026 primary election questionnaire](https://www.ocregister.com/2026/05/06/carolyn-daniels-ad-44-candidate-2026-primary-election-questionnaire/) 8. [Carolyn Daniels for Assembly — campaign site (bio and issues)](https://daniels4assembly.com/) 9. [California Legislative Information — public bill data (bulk download)](https://downloads.leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/) 10. [Cal-Access raw data export — California Secretary of State](https://www.sos.ca.gov/campaign-lobbying/helpful-resources/raw-data-campaign-finance-and-lobbying-activity) ## The rest of the ballot Member of the State Assembly, District 44 is one contest among the many a California voter decides on November 3, 2026 — Congress, the Legislature, county, city, and school board races differ by address. Vote or Else builds the full list for any California address and breaks down each contest the way this page does, with no account and without storing the address: https://voteorelse.com/ ## How to cite this page Vote or Else, "Member of the State Assembly, District 44 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/assembly-44 (sources last retrieved September 24, 2026). Link the canonical page above rather than this Markdown file. Coverage is updated as the race develops, so quote it with its retrieval date.