Opinion from Joe Barton: Eddie Bernice Johnson has been an outstanding congresswoman
U.S. Reps. Eddie Bernice Johnson, who is retiring after 30 years on Capitol Hill, is pictured here with the author, former congressman Joe Barton during a panel discussion with representatives Pete Sessions, Marc Veasey , and moderator Brandon Formby of the Texas Tribune at the Dallas Regional Chamber's Congressional Forum at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas in 2019.When the 117th Congress ends later this year, U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson will retire.
Today, most of us view racial segregation and the civil rights movement as an academic, historical event. Not so Johnson. She experienced it firsthand. And she helped move the cause of equality and equal opportunity forward, not only for Black Americans, but also for women. Johnson told me the VA made her work difficult shifts: two day shifts, two evening shifts and one night shift per week. It’s almost impossible for your body clock to adjust to such a schedule, but somehow she persevered and eventually became the nursing director of the mental health department.
In spring 1972, on the last day to file for the race, Johnson was home and had totally forgotten she had to file by 6 p.m. She rushed to Democratic Party headquarters, where they had already filled out her candidate application. She signed it, but didn’t have the $52 filing fee. The chairman gave her 30 days to pay it, which she gladly did. Her political career almost ended before it got started, were it not for some very friendly and understanding party headquarters officials.
In addition to her official duties in the Texas Legislature, Johnson was also active in Democratic politics. During her first term as a Texas House member, she was named one of the co-chairs for George McGovern’s presidential campaign in Texas. In this capacity, she met and became good friends with McGovern’s regional chairman, a young man from Arkansas named Bill Clinton.
She had been one of 150 state representatives. Now she was one of 31 state senators, and the only Black female state senator. She quickly became a favorite of the leader of the Texas Senate, Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby, and his successor, Bob Bullock.Bullock approached Johnson in 1991 with a leadership task, a very important and high-profile one.
In 1991, the 10 Republican members of the Texas congressional delegation chose U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay and me to be liaisons with Austin. The 17 Texas Democrats chose U.S. Rep. Martin Frost, a close ally of House Majority Leader Rep. Jim Wright. Johnson balanced all the competing forces with skill and ushered through a new congressional map that the governor signed, the Justice Department precleared and the courts upheld.
The city of Fort Worth and American Airlines fiercely defended the Wright Amendment. The city of Dallas initially defended it, too, and Southwest also supported it, but over time, consumer groups attacked the Wright Amendment as a restraint of trade. Pressure began to build to repeal it.
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