Dallas Regional Chamber celebrates contributions of retiring Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson

Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson leaves office in a few months, but the Dallas Democrat plans to keep pushing to improve the city she’s represented for decades.

“I’ll never lose interest in the community and I’ll continue to work,” Johnson said Wednesday, citing hopes for building up particular areas of South Dallas. “I know that I cannot do what I have in mind, to complete that, by the time that I leave office, but I’m trying to put all the factors in place now and I will try to see that through.”

The Dallas Regional Chamber honored Johnson during its annual congressional forum, presenting her with a newly created award that will bear her name and go to retiring officials who have had “extraordinary, long-lasting positive impact on the Dallas Region.”

Johnson spoke Wednesday about her political career’s humble beginnings, rooted in a shoestring campaign for the Texas House in 1972.

Her win in that race made her the first Black woman elected to public office from Dallas, just one of many historic markers she set over the years.

The Voting Rights Act was a relatively recent development at the time and it was shortly after she was first sworn in that the Supreme Court issued its landmark Roe vs. Wade ruling establishing a constitutional right to abortion.

Fast forward to present day, when voting access laws are being hotly debated once again and the Supreme Court has overturned Roe, upending five decades of federal abortion rights.

Johnson, a former nurse, recalled how she welcomed the Roe decision at the time and still believes it was rightly decided in 1973.

She called for more people to engage politically and encouraged more women to run for office, but also cautioned any prospective lawmakers that getting things done requires late nights and a lot of hard — and not particularly glamorous — work.

“It’s not an easy job … it’s a serious job,” Johnson said.

The dean of the Texas congressional delegation, Johnson was first elected to the U.S. House in 1992 and quickly joined the Science Committee. When her party retook the majority in 2018, she became its chairwoman — the first Black person and the first woman to hold the position.

Johnson used her gavel to push back on Republican attempts to block action on climate change and advance support for scientific research ad STEM education.

Johnson recently helped shepherd through one of the biggest bills of her time, a new law that authorizes $200 billion worth of science and technology funding, including a reauthorization of NASA.

That measure also devotes tens of billions of dollars to attract semiconductor chip companies to locate their new and expanded facilities in the United States rather than in other countries that have used their own incentives to erode U.S. market share of chips.

Johnson said Wednesday those chips are included in every product around and boosting domestic chip production is important not just for creating high-paying jobs but to protect national security.

“We are very concerned about the competition coming from China because that is a communist country and we have to be forever vigilant,” Johnson said. “And so we want to make sure that we have the lion’s share of production.”

She also is a senior member of the House Transportation Committee, a perch from which she has helped steer critical infrastructure projects to Dallas. Wednesday’s event was held at the Hyatt Regency, just steps from the city’s once-segregated Union Station that was renamed for Johnson in 2019.

She described researching colleagues’ backgrounds and committee assignments to figure out whom she needed to approach to advance initiatives that would help the Dallas area.

Those efforts criss-crossed the aisle and she wryly observed Wednesday that she had never known floodwaters to have a party affiliation.

More infrastructure coming

Reps. Marc Veasey of Fort Worth and Colin Allred of Dallas also participated in Wednesday’s forum, during which they touted the benefits expected to flow from the new bipartisan infrastructure law.

Veasey highlighted how that legislation will fund projects such as improvements at DFW International Airport and Love Field as well as support more electric vehicle charging stations. He compared it to past landmark infrastructure measures such as the creation of the federal interstate highway system.

“A lot of the investments and a lot of the initiatives that were in this bill will be things that we will be talking about, and people will be talking about long after we’re gone,” Veasey said.

Allred noted that Texas is expected to receive about $35 billion from the infrastructure law in coming years but warned that could be affected by the annual spending bills in Congress.

“It’s really important that we get these projects started, that we have them planned and that our local communities, our local leaders, our business communities and business leaders go to bat for making sure they continually are funded and there’s not a drop off in that funding for the State of Texas,” Allred said.

Johnson has endorsed as her successor state Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who won a Democratic primary runoff and is expected to defeat Republican James Rodgers in November’s general election in the heavily Democratic district.

Crockett was in the audience Wednesday and said in an interview afterward that it’s intimidating to think about stepping into Johnson’s giant shoes.

Crockett, 41, pointed out a “bit of a generational gap” between her and the 86-year-old Johnson, but said they have worked closely together and will continue to do so.

Johnson said she has some physical challenges such as arthritis and that she hopes to have some free time in retirement, but that as long as her mind still works, so will she.

“As long as I can keep clear thinking I’ll be doing something,” Johnson said.