The sculpture garden of the Wende Museum was the site for Assembly member Isaac Bryan’s fundraiser on Sunday, January 25, 2026.
After being welcomed by the Wende’s Executive Director, Justin Jampol, the chilly afternoon evnet turned directly to politics. The small crowd was tuned into the moment, and the moment was angry. Former Culver City Mayor Meghan Sahli-Wells offered “What a lot of us are feeling right now is rage; justifiable rage.” The unjustifiable deaths in Minnesota were center stage. Bryan expertly framed these facts to focus on the need for accurate narrative, and the struggle to hold truth in the light.
There were some gold star supporters there to offer comments, including Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove, who formerly held the Sacramento post that Bryan now holds, and UCLA Department Chair Dr. Kelly Lytle Hernandez. Bryan had been a student of Hernandez when he attended UCLA, and he thanked her for her mentorship.
Also commenting briefly were Mayor Freddy Puza, Council member Yasmin Imani McMorrin, and former Los Angeles City official Mike Bonin.
Assembly member Bryan offered that he had been really neglectful of fundraising; “I ran to move policy and legislation, not call you every month for a few dollars. We are in a different time now, and this state is in a different place; that place is a period of transition…We are in a fight for our literal lives to tell the truth.”
He drew in the narratives from Minnesota being broadcast from different sources, and went back to the fires of 2025 to offer that the noise was truly drowning out the signal. “I saw how the mayor could not get the facts out to people, because of the trolls. I saw how the governor could not get information out to people, because of the lies.”
His comments on why he was focused on policy and not fundraising, he said “People ask me how do you find the energy? It’s because we are getting things done.”
When Bryan ran through his list of accomplishments, the number of them that directly effected Culver City was significant. The Center for the Study of Climate Change at West Los Angeles College, the Center on Reproductive Health, Law and Policy at UCLA, the electrification of the Culver CityBus line, the closure of the Inglewood Oil Field – every one creating large local impact.
“The 55th Assembly district is one of the most diverse districts in the state – and we all want the same things. Clean air, clean water, good schools – hospitals and health care – we want to be able to bike or to walk to our job – we want to live our lives.”
The many positive changes he offered were an accurate picture of how he’d spent his time time in office the previous term
“The fact that I can be standing here as the sun goes down, in a former sundown town…proof that things really can change.”
He asked his supported to “Tap back into your hope. We will get through this.”
Judith Martin-Straw
