The South's first out LGBTQ+ congresswoman is fighting a GOP effort to cut her out of Congress

"When Texas Congresswoman Julie Johnson stepped onto the House floor in January as part of the 119th Congress, she already had pragmatic instincts of a seasoned legislator, but now she was making history. Johnson is the first out LGBTQ+ member of Congress ever elected from the South. She is also one of the few first-year lawmakers entering the Washington, D.C. maelstrom with years of bipartisan legislative wins already under her belt."

"Johnson describes her first year not as a transition into federal lawmaking but as an urgent defensive stand against what she sees as a rising authoritarian threat. "I'm full of purpose," Johnson told The Advocate during a recent interview in her Capitol Hill office. "There's so much work to be done up here. I feel like I'm on the defensive team and that's the role I've been in my whole legislative career.""

Julie Johnson is the first out LGBTQ+ member of Congress elected from the South. She entered the 119th Congress with a record of bipartisan legislative wins from the Texas House, where she passed 108 bills across three terms beginning in 2018. She focused on patient protection, insurance reform, and problem-solving, and authored the first bipartisan Medicaid expansion bill in Texas. She was named Texas Monthly's 2019 Freshman of the Year and received recognition from the Texas Medical Association and Texas CASA. Johnson describes her first federal year as an urgent defensive stand against a rising authoritarian threat and emphasizes pragmatic, bipartisan approaches amid national polarization.

Read at Advocate.com