Henry Calvin Johnson Jr. (born October 2, 1954) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representative for Georgia's 4th congressional district since 2007. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district is anchored in Atlanta's inner eastern suburbs, including the majority of DeKalb County—which encompasses Decatur, Lithonia, Stone Mountain, Dunwoody, Brookhaven, and Doraville—as well as parts of Gwinnett County, including Peachtree Corners, Lawrenceville, Duluth, and Norcross, along with a small portion of the city of Atlanta.
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Life, education, and career
Johnson grew up in Washington, D.C. His father worked for the Bureau of Prisons and was the director of classifications and paroles. Up to that time, he was the highest ranking African-American in the bureau.
Johnson received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Clark College (now Clark Atlanta University) in 1976, where he joined the Kappa Alpha Alpha chapter of Omega Psi Phi, Decatur, Georgia. He received his Juris Doctor from the Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School of Law in Houston in 1979, and practiced law in Decatur, Georgia, for more than 25 years.
From 1989 to 2001, Johnson served as an associate judge of the DeKalb County magistrate's court. He was elected to the DeKalb County Commission in 2000 and served from 2001 to 2006.
U.S. House of Representatives
Elections
In 2006, Johnson challenged Representative Cynthia McKinney in the Democratic primary for the 4th district—the real contest in this heavily Democratic, black-majority district. He forced McKinney into a runoff by holding her under 50% in the July 18 primary: McKinney got 47.1% of the vote; Johnson 44.4%, and a third candidate 8.5%.
In the August 8 runoff, although there were about 8,000 more voters, McKinney got about the same number of votes as in the July primary. Johnson won with 41,178 votes (59%) to McKinney's 28,832 (41%).
On October 6, 2006, Congressional Quarterly's "On Their Way", which features promising candidates soon to arrive in Washington, featured Johnson.
In November, Johnson defeated the Republican nominee, Catherine Davis, with 76% of the vote—one of the largest percentages for a Democrat in a contested election, and the largest in the district's history. But he had effectively assured himself of a seat in Congress by winning the primary: with a Cook Partisan Voting Index of D+22, the 4th was the second-most Democratic district in Georgia (only the neighboring 5th, covering most of Atlanta, was more Democratic).
Johnson made aggressive use of the internet to court supporters and attract national attention to his primary challenge to McKinney. The National Journal wrote that of all congressional candidates nationwide in 2006, "Johnson had the most unique blog strategy by far." The National Journal ranked Johnson's use of the internet to defeat McKinney—and the broader trend of challengers using the blogosphere to challenge entrenched incumbents—as the third most significant blog-related story of 2006. Johnson was the first congressional candidate invited to blog for The Hill's Congress Blog, typically reserved for members of Congress. "I'm tremendously excited about the opportunity to use this unique medium to strengthen democracy by increasing open interaction between constituents and candidates," Johnson wrote. "I hope to provide you with an inside view of this hotly-contested, high stakes runoff."
Johnson was unopposed for reelection in 2008, winning 99.9% of the vote against write-in candidates Loren Christopher Collins, Faye Coffield and Jacob Perasso.
Tenure
On November 18, 2008, the Democratic Caucus elected Johnson Regional Whip for the Eighth Region (GA, FL, MS, AL, U.S. Virgin Islands).
On January 25, 2007, Johnson responded to President George W. Bush's State of the Union address by criticizing the war in Iraq, saying, "This war has proven to be one of the gravest missteps in the recent history of our country. It is time for President Bush to face the music and respond to the urgent demands of a frustrated country."
On February 8, 2007, Johnson introduced his first bill: a resolution requesting that Defense Secretary Robert Gates take U.S. troops off of street patrol duty in Iraq. "There is no military solution for the civil war in Iraq", Johnson said. "It is time for Iraqi troops, who have been trained, to assume responsibility for patrolling their own streets. Clearly, deploying our troops this way has only escalated the number of U.S. casualties, and this must stop". According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Johnson's resolution was "interesting in that it goes beyond broad directives and proposes something very specific".
On March 23, 2007, Johnson voted to pass H.R. 1591 and attracted attention by blogging about his decision to vote for it. H.R. 1591 passed the House on March 23, 2007, and the Senate on April 26, but Bush, citing the Iraqi withdrawal timeline among the many particulars as being unacceptable, vetoed the bill on May 1; Congress tried to override the veto the next day but was unable to garner the votes. On May 24, 2007, Johnson voted to cut funding for the Iraq War unless provisions included binding requirements upon the Iraqi government. On May 25, 2007, a compromise bill, the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act, 2007, was enacted.
Johnson has been a critic of Israel's occupation policies and has not altered his stance despite criticism.
On July 25, 2016, in a speech in Philadelphia before the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, Johnson said that the Israel occupation of the West Bank had created highways to which Palestinians are denied access, and which cut off Palestinian neighborhoods from each other; that walls and Israeli checkpoints restrict Palestinian freedom of movement; that Jewish people take homes when Palestinian residents miss spending a night there, and fly an Israeli flag, while Palestinians are not permitted to fly their own. He was also purported to have said Palestinian homes were stolen or destroyed. He added that "there is a steady [stream], almost like termites" and that "settlement activity has marched forwards with impunity".
Committee assignments
For the 119th Congress:
Committee on the Judiciary
Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet (Ranking Member)
Subcommittee on Oversight
Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
Subcommittee on Aviation
Subcommittee on Highways and Transit
Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials
Caucus memberships
Black Maternal Health Caucus
Congressional Equality Caucus
Congressional Progressive Caucus
Congressional Black Caucus
Congressional Taiwan Caucus
Congressional Caucus for the Equal Rights Amendment
Congressional Freethought Caucus
Congressional Arts Caucus
U.S.-Japan Caucus
Medicare for All Caucus
Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission
Rare Disease Caucus
United States–China Working Group
Congressional Caucus on Turkey and Turkish Americans
Personal life
Johnson is married to attorney and DeKalb County commissioner Mereda Davis Johnson; they have two children.
In December 2009, Johnson revealed that he had been battling Hepatitis C (HCV) for over a decade, which resulted in slow speech and a tendency to regularly get "lost in thought in the middle of a discussion". He said he learned he had the disease in 1998 but did not know how he contracted it. HCV-induced liver dysfunction often leads to hepatic encephalopathy, a cause of confusion. Symptoms are often reversible with treatment. The disease damaged his liver and led to thyroid problems. He was treated with a combination of ribavirin and interferon at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. In February 2010, Johnson successfully completed an experimental treatment for Hepatitis C, which resulted in restored mental acuity, weight gain and increased energy.
Johnson is one of only four Buddhists to have served in the United States Congress. The others are Representative Derek Tran of California, Senator Mazie Hirono and former representative Colleen Hanabusa, both of Hawaii. Johnson is a member of the Nichiren Buddhism-based new religious movement Soka Gakkai International, and has spoken fondly about the group's long-time leader, Daisaku Ikeda, and Soka Gakkai's efforts to abolish nuclear weapons. He spoke at the opening of the SGI-USA's Buddhist Center in Washington, D.C., in 2008, and spoke on the lay practitioner group's podcast in 2020. Johnson's membership in the organization caused controversy when he was first sworn in; the Cult Education Institute's Cult News ran a headline on Johnson's membership and noting the group's perceived reverence for Ikeda and how fringe Soka Gakkai is within Buddhism.