Former President Barack Obama has endorsed openly lesbian candidate Julie Johnson for Texas House of Representatives. She is running to replace Republican incumbent Matt “bathroom bill” Rinaldi in District 115,
In his list of endorsements for candidates around the country, Obama tweeted, “Today, I’m proud to endorse even more Democratic candidates who aren’t just running against something, but for something — to expand opportunity for all of us and to restore dignity, honor, and compassion to public service. They deserve your vote.”
Obama also endorsed state Rep. Eric Johnson of Dallas, who is not only running for re-election to his Texas House seat, but has thrown his hat in the ring to replace Joe Straus as speaker of the Texas House. Although Johnson is a Democrat in the Republican-controlled Legislature, the speaker is selected by all members of the state House of Representatives, not just by the party in power, as happens in the U.S. House.
Other Texas endorsements include Gina Ortiz Jones, another openly-lesbian candidate, who is running for the West Texas U.S. House seat in District 23 against incumbent Will Hurd. Polls show that race is very tight.
Obama also endorsed Ana-Maria Ramos who is challenging Linda Koop for her North Dallas Texas House seat. When Koop sat on the Dallas City Council, she was a reliable ally to the LGBT community. After entering the Texas House, she turned on the community as well as her gay brother and received a 0 percent rating from Equality Texas.
Obama threw his support behind Terry Meza running against Texas House incumbent Rodney Anderson, R-Irving, and Rhetta Bowers running against Jonathan Boos to replace Rep.Cindy Burkett, R-Garland.
In West Texas, Obama endorsed Veronica Escobar from El Paso who is running for Congress.
His Houston endorsements went to Lizzie Fletcher who is running for Congress against Republican incumbent John Culberson and Sylvia Garcia who is running to replace U.S. Rep. Gene Green. If Garcia or Escobar win, they will be the first Latinas elected to Congress from Texas.
In his first round of endorsements, Obama supported Colin Allred, who is running against Pete Sessions whose district includes part of Oak Lawn.
— David Taffet
