Julie Johnson poised for victory in Texas primary, set to be first LGBTQ Congress member from the South

Texas state Rep. Julie Johnson (D) appears headed for the November general election for a Texas House seat left open by Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas), positioning her to be the first openly LGBTQ person to represent the state — and the South — in Congress.

With less than 50 percent of the vote in, the race had not yet been called by Decision Desk DQ, but Johnson held a wide lead over her fellow Democratic rivals. On Wednesday morning, she declared victory.

“We did it!!” her campaign wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “Because of incredible supporters like you, we just won our primary election for Texas’s 32nd Congressional District!”

Johnson is expected to prevail in November in the race for Texas’s 32nd Congressional District seat, given the district is solidly blue. Her campaign came after Allred launched a challenge to Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Texas) reelection bid in May.

Allred flipped the seat for Democrats in 2018 and won reelection with more than 65 percent of the general election vote. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the House race as “solid Democrat.”

Johnson fought off a competitive challenge from trauma surgeon Brian Williams, a former health policy adviser to Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). Each candidate led the Democratic primary field in fundraising by a wide margin, raking in more than a million dollars in donations.

Johnson on the campaign trail touted her experience as a trial attorney and success in the state Legislature, where she has served since 2019. “I already know how to get the job done and win the toughest battles,” she said in a campaign announcement video in June.

If Johnson wins in November’s general election, she will be the first out LGBTQ member of Congress from a Southern state.