In November, U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson (D-TX) made history as the first out woman elected to Congress from the South. With President Donald Trump’s election to a second term the same night, she’s barely had time to celebrate.

Her victory, says Johnson, 58, “seems like an age ago,” as Trump monopolized the political discourse and forced Democrats on defense under a barrage of executive orders. His attempt to rule by decree, however, is running up against a “judicial branch that’s weighing in and checking an out-of-control executive,” Johnson says. “And that’s exactly what needs to happen.”

The Texas lawyer is bringing her own judicial expertise to a task force of Democrats focused on challenging Trump in court. More than a hundred lawsuits brought against the administration are exposing the fallacy that a president can rule like a king.

We caught up with Johnson at Dulles International Airport in Washington, where she was waiting for a flight back to her home district in Dallas.

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LGBTQ Nation: You come to Washington with experience in a similar political environment to Texas, where Republicans also have a trifecta, controlling the House and Senate and the executive branch, and Democrats are in the minority. In 2021, you and your Texas House colleagues engaged in an amazing act of resistance by essentially shutting down the Texas government when you fled the state to stop a right-wing, so-called voting rights bill from passage. The state House issued warrants for your arrest. It had the practical effect of slowing the legislation down, but it was also a remarkably effective piece of political theatre to draw attention to your cause. Is a message of resistance finally taking shape for Democrats? What is it? And what act of show-stopping defiance of Trump and Republicans can we look forward to?

Rep. Julie Johnson: Well, I think Democrats are in the act of resistance. You know, we are using every tool we can. Unfortunately, the American people didn’t give us control of either branch of this Congress, and so we are somewhat limited in that we don’t have the ability to bring legislation to the floor, similar to the Texas Democrats, as well.

The difference, too, is our quorum rules. Congress has a different quorum threshold than the Texas Legislature did. So the Democrats had that quorum tool that we don’t have in Congress to have that show of defiance, as you say.

But I do think that we’re doing as much as we can, in that we are trying to communicate in an abundant and intense way. We’re all doing town halls. We’re all giving as many media interviews as possible. We’re having press conferences. We’re coordinating with outside groups who have standing to bring litigation. There’s been over 100 lawsuits filed. We are winning in the courts, and so we’re really having a lot of strong coordination in that regard.

I’m on the litigation task force really trying to shepherd, to have a concentrated message and purpose through the judicial system. A lot of the lawyers in the House are very active in that, and we’re winning there.

And, you know, just trying to find as many opportunities as you can in committees. We’re offering amendments, forcing Republicans to take hard votes, and really highlighting the stark differences between Republicans and Democrats.

One example of resistance happened a few weeks ago when screens throughout the Department of Housing and Urban Development started playing a looped, AI-generated video of Trump caressing Elon Musk’s feet with the caption, “Long live the real king.” How do you rate that as an act of resistance, and is mocking Trump an effective strategy to undermine him?

(Laughing) Well, I think, you know, at this point, every act of defiance needs to happen. I thought that was — I got a kick out of it, to be honest with you. And you know, if it triggers and resonates with some people — what we’re finding is, there’s not just one communication source that resonates with the broader public.

People get their news in thousands of different ways. If that effort reaches a certain amount of people on a TikTok video or something in a way that other regular, more conservative-based messaging doesn’t work, then it’s great. Whatever gets people’s attention and wakes up the American people as to what the Republicans are doing, I’m all for it.

Another act of resistance happened a few weeks ago when Maine Gov. Janet Mills responded to Trump’s bullying at a Governors’ Association meeting at the White House over Maine’s stand on transgender student-athletes. After Trump threatened to withhold federal funds from the state, Mills shot back, “See you in court.” Is allowing trans participation in school sports a state’s rights issue, and if it is, what’s to stop red states from enacting other punitive legislation targeting the LGBTQ+ community in the name of states’ rights?

Well, I was really pleased to see the Maine governor do that. You know, I would love to see more governors and attorneys general who have the legal standing to bring these lawsuits do that, and that’s kind of what we’re coordinating.

On the trans issue, obviously, I would love to see zero discrimination against the trans community, as a member of the LGBTQ community myself. But there are some aspects to it. There are some in the movement that are trying to defer it down to the local level and at least have trans kids able to play in some states versus no states.

Lawmakers in nine states have introduced resolutions or legislation with the goal of undermining marriage equality, some calling on the Supreme Court to straight up overturn Obergefell v. Hodges. You’re a lawyer. If a case reached the Supreme Court tomorrow, could you envision the new, now more conservative majority overturning a precedent set just 10 years ago?

Well, it certainly is concerning, right? I would hope that Justice Roberts, for example, who voted to support Obergefell, would stay consistent in his position.

But it was really significant that Congress passed the Respect for Marriage Act during the Biden administration, that [Sen.] Tammy Baldwin really led the charge on, because it was a legislative intervention that we didn’t have in the line of cases that Roe was based on, and Obergefell. So I think that that legislative intervention shows Congressional intent to respect the right to marry and hopefully that will be enough to hold it.

Last month, you were at a Labor Department protest with Representative Robert Garcia of California, a fellow member of the Congressional Equality Caucus. You accused Elon Musk and his DOGE boys of transferring Americans’ personal data to their own private servers. And new developments add to the list of accusations: in February, 21 staffers at the former U.S. Digital Service resigned in protest, saying the DOGE team was mishandling sensitive data and breaking critical systems. Just as bad, or worse, staffers said they had been subjected to questions about political loyalty as part of a DOGE reinterview process. The Labor Department and every other Cabinet agency is in the executive branch’s remit. Are we stuck with DOGE?

I hope not. You know, I think that that’s what we’re seeing with so much of the outcry and the protest. That’s what a lot of the lawsuits about. Hopefully, they will ultimately play out.

I think what DOGE is doing is exceedingly dangerous. It’s really compromising our national security. It’s compromising the integrity of people’s privacy. Who knows if they’re going to start weaponizing Social Security payments. Are they going to start cross-checking data for payment processes? You know, you get your Medicare check, you get your Social Security check if you vote Republican. If you don’t — that’s something that we should all be very concerned about. It seems like it’s outside of the realm of possibility until it becomes in the realm of possibility.

We’re already seeing so many things that the DOGE effort and the Trump administration has done that none of us would have ever thought possible: wholesale firing and weaponization of the FBI, complete undermining of USAID, and trying to shut down the entire Department of Education (laughing). I mean, these are, these are such outrageous acts by this administration. And I think what you’re seeing is a rising-up, an activation by the people who don’t want this.

That’s why we’re seeing record numbers in Democratic town halls. You’re seeing resistance and pushback in Republican town halls, which is why the Republicans have instructed their members to not do these town halls, because they don’t like the visual of the public pushing back. And the public just has to double down and raise as much hell as they can.

Elon Musk and other allies of the president — and some historians, too — say America is at a similar place Rome was in the time of Caesar: that democracy is broken, society is decadent, and we need a dictator to get anything done. Musk even has an ancient Rome researcher on his DOGE team, and we know about what he called his “Roman salute.” What do you think of that analogy? Is democracy broken, and do we need a dictator to get anything done?

You know, democracy is not broken. We have the peaceful transfer of power. We have elections. We have people participating in our elections. Democracy is not broken at all. We absolutely don’t need a dictator.

We need our checks and balances of government to work, though, and we’re seeing that. You know, we have the judicial branch that’s weighing in and checking an out-of-control executive. And that’s exactly what needs to happen. The people are making their voices heard. Elections will have consequences, right, wrong, or otherwise. The Republicans won this past election cycle, and they feel like they have a mandate. We’ll see what happens in the 2026 cycle, if the public agrees with that and keeps them in power, or if they change course and say this is not what we asked for.

During your first term in the Texas House, you were named Freshman of the Year by Texas Monthly for using House rules to kill a bill that would allow companies to invoke religious discrimination to fire gay employees. You and other Democrats went on to help turn back hundreds of other LGBTQ+ bills filed in the legislature. Does the U.S. House have similar rules to be exploited, and what’s on your kill list?

Ha! Well, anything that negatively harms the LGBTQ community is always on my kill list, but about the rules, no, the House doesn’t have the same kind of rules that we had available to us in the Texas Legislature, which is very frustrating and disheartening. We need to look at that and empower minority opportunities in the rules package, but from what I can tell, we don’t have a lot of the same rules available that we had in the Texas Legislature.

Affinity groups in federal agencies and departments were some of the victims of Trump’s DEI executive order. You were just welcomed into the Congressional Equality Caucus, which would be banned if it was under the President’s purview. What are the benefits of groups like it, and is there any recourse to reinstate those groups and federal agencies on free speech grounds?

Well, I think the benefits of these groups are enormous. You know, you want to have a facility and a place where like-minded people can come together and talk policy, what’s working, what’s not working, what policy initiatives can we do to make our community better? You know, the Equality Caucus is one of the largest caucuses on the Democratic side and in Congress, and it’s also a statement of support and commitment to the values the Equality Caucus espouses. So it’s critically important that we have these spaces.

I think it’s wrong that the Trump administration is trying to eliminate these from all the federal agencies. I don’t know for sure if lawsuits have been filed on that particular issue or not, but we do have some federal protections — being terminated based on your sexual orientation, and discriminating on sex and race and color — and so for Black affinity groups and other affinity groups, to have an adverse employment termination because they’re participating in one of those groups, I think would be subject to a valid legal challenge.

We’re celebrating Women’s History Month this month. Young queer women often say they don’t have that many high-profile leaders to look up to. As the first out LGBTQ+ woman from the South elected to Congress, how does it feel to know that you could be a role model for others?

Oh, it’s awesome. You know, it’s humbling and it’s empowering and it’s inspiring all at the same time. It’s not lost on me what the visibility of my election represents and what it means to people, especially in red states where they don’t have a lot of folks in elected office that seem to be standing up for our community. And so the fact that I was able to win a congressional seat in a state like Texas is very significant, and it shows that progress can be made. We just have to be thoughtful and aggressive about putting ourselves in the arena and not be afraid.

Texas has a history of electing outspoken women to office. What influence did women like Texas Gov. Ann Richards (D) and Congresswoman Barbara Jordan (D) have on your own political awakening?

Oh, enormous amounts. You know, I mean, Ann Richards, she was just an ass-kicker on every level. You know, I loved it, and her, and I got a chance to meet her several times. I got to know her daughter, Cecile, quite well. Just an inspiration, you know? It’s like that for any of the times you see women who are really pushing the boundaries and pushing the needle.

I’m the first woman to hold this congressional seat. We have 38 members of the Texas delegation in Congress, and I think seven of us are women, even though we’re at least 50% of the population. That’s just not good enough. And in the Texas House, women only made up about a third of the members. And so we need more women in office. We have different perspectives to bring to the conversation and ideas that are important to share and be part of the solution process to help the help folks in this country.

What’s the single most important thing the world should do to address the climate crisis?

Oh, I don’t know if I have the single-most thing. You know, our climate is of critical importance. Our weather patterns, our increasing temperature, our declining water quality, it’s all important. I don’t know if you can pick just one.

70% of Americans believe climate change is happening, it’s man-made, and we need to stop pumping carbon into the atmosphere. You’ve said that incentivizing further development of carbon recapture technology is something all Americans agree on. One of them is Elon Musk, who’s actively supporting the development of carbon technology with a $100 million X Prize competition. What’s the latest on that technology and is it enough to overcome the massive addition of carbon that Trump’s “Drill, baby, drill” mantra is going to wreak on the planet?

You know, I think it’s probably not going to be enough to overcome Trump’s “Drill, baby, drill” policies. But at this point, just because it doesn’t do everything doesn’t mean we should do nothing. And so I think we should do everything that we can to minimize carbon emissions and try to extend the life of our planet as much as possible.

One of your colleagues, Rep. Becca Balint of Vermont, introduced the Combating Loneliness Act to address what she calls an acute mental health and loneliness crisis in America. One of the factors in that crisis is the rise of social media. Humans are evolving with phones in their hands, and social is here to stay. So how do we manage the fallout? What are your own and your family’s social media habits? How many hours a day are you all online?

(Laughing) I think my kids are on it more than I am. You know, they’re incompetent without their phone.

I certainly agree with that. I grew up in a time where the only phone was on the wall in the kitchen, with a very long cord, and you were out and about without a phone. And the world seemed to function just fine.

I remember a time when my son was in junior high, and I said, “Honey, do you want to invite some friends over? You know, it’s a Saturday, why don’t you have some friends over, and y’all can play your games or do whatever?” He goes, “Oh, no, Mama, I don’t need to. We don’t need to get together. We’re just all online.” I was stunned by the fact that 13-year-old boys would much rather each stay in their own house and be logged into a game than sitting next to each other playing a game.

I mean, I was in my 20s before I got the first cell phone mounted in my car. I remember when the iPhone came out; I had a Blackberry for a long time. The fact that you can reach me as I’m sitting in an airport, waiting to board a plane, is something I never thought would happen 30 years ago. That’s the upside.

But kids are more isolated, there are less opportunities for socialization. That’s one of the significant effects of this DEI reduction. It’s just removing social gathering spots of college campuses, of high school campuses, for people to gather over a common issue. It’s really unfortunate that we’re eliminating those opportunities of common connectedness.

How many times since you’ve arrived in Washington has there been confusion over a Johnson making news in Congress, and it turned out to be Julie Johnson, not Speaker Mike Johnson?

(Laughing) There hasn’t been any confusion about that, but I think that would be hilarious. I would love for him to be attributed to quotes I make. I think that would be great.

What’s the best thing so far about representing the constituents of Texas District 32 in Congress?

The realization that we have a real opportunity to move the needle on policy and social thinking and the commentary and the conversation and the public dialogue as members of Congress, much more so than I did in the state Legislature. Like, I’m talking to you now, and I never did when I was in the state legislature. I’m the same person, but my platform is much bigger and much broader, and it’s up to all of us as members of Congress to use it to the fullest extent possible — to make sure that we are informing, educating, and persuading the voters on the policies that we all care about.  

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