Focusing on the basics

State House candidate Julie Johnson says issues like education, infrastructure matter, not her sexual orientation

DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
taffet@dallasvoice.com
“The dynamics make this a race we can pick up,” said Julie Johnson, who is running for the 115th District in the Texas House of Representatives.
The district covers the northwest corner of Dallas County. That seat is currently filled by second-term Republican Matt Rinaldi, who narrowly won his primary in 2016 and won the election by an even slimmer margin.
Johnson jumped into the race just a few weeks ago, when Dorotha M. Ocker, the Democrat who challenged Rinaldi in 2016 and lost by less than 1,000 votes, withdrew from the 2018 race to run for a judicial position.
In her first few weeks in the race, Johnson has already raised about $100,000. But that’s not surprising for someone who’s spent her political career so far on the fundraising side.
“I’ve been an advocate for other people all my life,” Johnson said. “I’m at a time in my life where I can be a candidate.”
In addition to the political opportunity she sees to defeat Rinaldi, Johnson said her older son will be in college and the other in high school by the time she’d be going to Austin to serve.
Johnson has been an attorney for 27 years, 22 of those years in practice for herself. As a small business owner, she said, she understands covering payroll, healthcare costs and other practical matters — an understanding that she’d take to the legislature with her.
Johnson and her wife, gastroenterologist Dr. Sue Moster, were married in California in 2014, the same day Houston Mayor Annise Parker married her wife in San Francisco. Johnson and Moster adopted their two sons from Russia.
As a mom, Johnson said education is one of the issues she’s most passionate about and one where she believes her district sides with her position. Rinaldi supports vouchers that cut into public education. But the district includes some excellent public school systems, like Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD and Colleyville ISD, and families in the district support public schools and favor funding them, Johnson said.
Johnson has served on the Human Rights Campaign’s board of governors and board of directors and co-chaired HRC’s public policy committee, mostly working to defeat the proposed marriage amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would have banned same-sex marriage.
“I traveled all over the country,” Johnson said, “talking about why the amendment was horrible and shouldn’t be passed. I raised money to defeat it, and we were successful.”
Johnson said she’s proud of the important role she played in the fight for marriage equality. Explaining why she believes marriage is so important to the LGBT community, she said, “Marriage sets a level of commitment to the people around you.”
Attorney Rebecca Covell has known Johnson for more than 25 years. She said Johnson has “been politically engaged the whole time. Always plugged in.”
Johnson knows how to work across the aisle, is passionate, knows how to get things done and will deliver what she promises, Covell added.
What Johnson promises is a style of politics different from the incumbent’s.
“One thing that separates me from Matt Rinaldi is that our state politics have lost respect for our commonality,” she said. “We want to get a good job, have healthcare, raise our children, go about our business. It’s what I want for my children, too. I want them to be who they are, be judged on their merits and be given the chance to succeed.”
Johnson finds time to volunteer at a local DISD public school. She said 97 percent of the students at the school live at or below the poverty line. She said all she sees when she’s at the school are bright-eyed children who are eager to learn.
“The far right has lost their way,” Johnson said, noting that Rinaldi’s lack of attention to the public education system is destroying it. “That’s a huge issue in this district,” she said.
Another main issue for Johnson is healthcare. She believes Texas is losing money because of its Republican leaders, and Dallas taxpayers are losing even more money as they provide healthcare to residents of counties that don’t take care of their own.
She said Texas taxpayers contribute to federal coffers at a rate higher than other states since Texans don’t deduct state income tax from our federal taxes. But because state leaders refuse to expand Medicaid, other states are seeing money returned to cover healthcare costs through Medicaid expansion that isn’t being returned to Texas.
In Dallas, we fund Parkland Hospital. More conservative counties — like Collin County — don’t have a public hospital, and Dallas can’t bill that county for its indigent residents using our county hospital. So Dallas County taxpayers pick up the bill. Johnson said she’d like to do something about those inequities.
Back to basics
Johnson said both the regular and special sessions of the legislature this year were hijacked by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s bathroom bill, and she believes voters in her district know Rinaldi was partially responsible for that. After all, he was one of the authors of the bathroom bill.
“The majority of Texans want fiscal responsibility and are social progressives,” she said. “Our legislature has gotten away from that, and it’s hurting business.”
Johnson keeps returning to basics: “Focus on infrastructure,” she said. “Make sure our schools are strong and that we have good healthcare.”
While her marriage to Moster will make a difference to some voters, state Reps. Celia Israel and Mary Gonzalez, who are both lesbian, have made the road to election much easier for Johnson, and she looks to their model. Israel, who represents Austin where traffic is often gridlocked, has made transportation her signature issue, and Gonzalez has worked to bring running water to residents in her far West Texas district.
Politics often comes down to money, and when it comes to fundraising, Johnson is one of the best.
Candy Marcum, a longtime friend of Johnson’s, called her one of the most generous people she knows, with lots of experience fundraising.
“When I ran for city council, she raised money for me,” Marcum said. “On a national level, she raised a lot of money for Hillary” Clinton.
In fact, Johnson probably raised more than $1 million for Clinton’s presidential campaign. And she’s brought in more than $20 million over the course of her fundraising career for marriage equality and various candidates.
Now she’s running a campaign to win a seat for herself.
“I can’t say enough good things about her,” Marcum said. Covell agreed: “She has it all.”