Erica Schwartz

Erica Schwartz is an American politician serving since 2025 as a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives. A member of the Republican Party, Schwartz represents District 18A in south-central Minnesota, encompassing Nicollet County and parts of Blue Earth and Le Sueur Counties.

Early life, education and career Erica Schwartz is Mexican-American. She was diagnosed with a brain tumor during her senior year of high school. After high school, she moved to Nicollet, Minnesota.

When Schwartz was 25, her fiancé, Zack Smith, a recently returned Marine veteran, was killed in a car crash. She was pregnant at the time of his death and was a single mother until her marriage. She worked multiple jobs to support her child,

Minnesota House of Representatives Schwartz ran in the 2024 Minnesota House of Representatives election, challenging incumbent Jeff Brand after winning the Republican primary unopposed. During the campaign, she was overheard at a fundraiser implying that Democrats were leading the country toward another Holocaust; she apologized for the comment. The district has a history of close elections and party changes, so the race drew significant funding for both candidates, including $1.25 million from outside organizations.

On November 5, 2025, Schwartz was the first announced Republican winner of the 134 House seats, flipping the seat by three percentage points. She was one of three Republicans to flip their seats from DFL control, ending the DFL trifecta of the previous legislature and tying the House. Her strongest margins were in Nicollet County’s rural townships and cities. In addition to winning in Kasota and her hometown of Nicollet, Schwartz pulled ahead of Brand with a significant boost from Mankato’s largest precinct in the district.

As an author, Schwartz advocated the investigation of allegations of fraud in state programs and undisclosed legislative conflicts of interest by establishing a Commission on Governmental Efficiency and Ethics, increasing child tax credit, eliminating child credit marriage penalty and increasing credit phaseout, prohibiting the construction of schools near former landfills, providing funds for anti-human trafficking training, and establishing minimum sentences for malicious punishment of a child.

On March 16, 2026, the Minnesota House of Representatives unanimously passed H.R. 2169, a public safety bill chief-authored by Schwartz that expanded the offense of unintentional second-degree murder to include cases involving violations of protective orders issued in additional jurisdictions. The legislation passed with bipartisan support by a vote of 134–0.

Political positions Schwartz focused her campaign on local issues and economic concerns, avoiding national issues when possible. She said she ran for office after seeing Minnesotans' pain at the gas pump and grocery store while working at Nicollet Mart and vowed to fight for constituents' needs.

She supports lowering taxes on Social Security, saying, "while some politicians see it fit to build a $730 million palace for politicians, I promise to be a strong voice for permanent tax relief at the Capitol, including the complete elimination of the tax on your hard-earned Social Security benefit."

In addition to her plans to lower taxes, Schwartz iterated her support for loosening state regulations on local schools, small businesses, and farmers.

Electoral history