Dallas Morning News Endorses Nathan Johnson

“We recommend in Texas Senate District 16, Democratic primary”

By Dallas Morning News Editorial

As part of a cynical redistricting effort undertaken with the goal to pack as many Democrats as possible into ever-tighter districts, Texas Republicans remade Senate District 16 representing Dallas and inner ring suburbs.

They’ve gotten exactly what they wanted, a struggle between two important Democratic voices in the Legislature that will leave one without an office.

Incumbent Sen. Nathan Johnson, 56, and state Rep. Victoria Neave Criado, 43, should not be political rivals. But such is the zero-sum state of politics now that they are engaged in a bare-knuckled primary fight.

The theme of the race, at least according to Neave Criado, is that Johnson isn’t sufficiently tough on Republicans. She’s the fighter, according to her campaign.

We don’t doubt she is a fighter, and Neave Criado has done important work on behalf of not just Democratic causes but causes that benefit people across the state, particularly women.

But primary voters need to be careful what the word fighter means because Johnson has quietly become one of the most effective Democratic legislators in Texas. He has worked tirelessly, strategically and across the aisle to advance a swath of matters that help Texas be a better state. And he has stood in the path of Republican overreach in ways that the public can’t always see.

In politics these days, fighter really means noisemaker. We don’t think that is what Neave Criado is. She’s a serious lawmaker. But when she contrasts her stance as a fighter against Johnson’s, that’s the only meaning it can have. Because Johnson fights constantly. His fights aren’t on social media or in self-aggrandizing floor speeches that fire up the base only to alienate the broader electorate and the Republican senators Democrats need if they are going to advance their causes even an inch.

Johnson personally authored 99 bills in 2021 and 175 in 2023. In a Legislature that is hostile to Democrats, he actually gets bills passed.

Neave Criado has focused on a single vote from Johnson that increases the penalty for human smuggling and operating stash houses as evidence that he somehow is backing a racial-profiling agenda. This is a political distortion and not reflective of what actually happened when the Senate voted nearly unanimously, with 10 of 12 Democrats in support, to try to crack down on the sort of human smugglers who leave people to die in tractor-trailers.

It’s unfortunate that Republicans are getting what they wanted out of this race, a mud fight between two gifted Democrats. We wish Neave Criado hadn’t taken the bait. Her political future is bright, but it’s now marked by targeting a Democratic senator who has worked to improve the grid, water availability, access to health care and any number of issues critical to our future.

We urge voters to look at Johnson’s record and return him to office.

Dallas Morning News Editorial. Dallas Morning News editorials are written by the paper's Editorial Board and serve as the voice and view of the paper. The board considers a broad range of topics and is overseen by the Editorial Page Editor.

Proud of my ‘F’ rating

I’m absolutely thrilled to have gotten an ‘F’ on my report card. (I’ll remind my kids that this is an exceptional case.)

Why? Because it’s the Texas Right to Life report card! 

I’ve always been pro-choice, so I expected to get a failing grade from the anti-abortion lobby. But it gets so much better. I got like an ‘F-’ or something: they called me an “adversary” of those trying to limit women’s healthcare rights and went to the trouble to list all the good pro-choice bills I filed. Thanks TRL!

These sorts of report cards are usually designed to raise money for the backwards organizations that create them. Let’s turn that approach on its head:

What did I do to earn that ‘F-’? Here’s what Texas Right to Life had to say:

“Senator Johnson authored several pieces of [pro-choice] legislation, including: Senate Bill 78, to legalize abortion pills and expand their use up to 10 weeks; Senate Bill 79, to repeal Texas’ pre-Roe [anti-choice] laws; Senate Bill 291, to decriminalize direct and indirect assistance for out-of-state abortions; and, Senate Bill 1280, to permit direct and indirect assistance for out-of-state abortions.”

Damn right I did.

Now let me tell you about these four bills and why I authored them — along with many others designed to protect women’s right to choose.

• I wrote Senate Bill 78 to cut back on Texas’s draconian abortion ban by allowing physicians to prescribe abortion-inducing drugs. The decision whether to have an abortion should be made between a woman and her doctor, and her doctor needs the ability to effectuate whatever decision they make.

• I wrote Senate Bill 79 to repeal Texas’s abortion ban altogether. The abortion ban was wrong in 2021 when Texas Republicans enacted it; it was wrong in 2022 when it became effective after Roe v. Wade was overruled; it was wrong in 2023 when I introduced Senate Bill 79; and it’s still wrong now in 2024.

• I introduced Senate Bills 291 and 1280 to provide that Texas law doesn’t prohibit anyone — family members, volunteers, medical professionals, or otherwise — from helping a woman travel outside of Texas to obtain an abortion. Texas might have banned abortions, but other states still protect women’s rights — and women should be able to travel to those states to obtain medical care they can’t get here.

You can rest assured that whatever you can donate to support my campaign will help me get another ‘F-’ from Texas Right to Life next session.

Texas Senate Democratic Caucus Statement on the Impact of Texas’ Draconian Abortion Ban

It is not surprising that women are leaving Texas, and women are refusing to move to Texas, because of our state’s cruel and regressive laws on abortion and reproductive healthcare. Please take a minute to read our statement from the Senate Democratic Caucus.

Austin, TX — The Texas Senate Democratic Caucus issued the following statement in response to the latest data demonstrating the impact of Texas’ extreme abortion ban:

Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, nearly seven million Texas women of reproductive age are unable to access essential reproductive health care—even in the case of rape or incest. They have fewer rights than their mothers or their grandmothers had.

In addition to stripping women of the fundamental right to control what happens to their bodies, Texas’ draconian laws have made it a nightmare for the many women experiencing serious medical complications that can only be resolved through abortion care. Yet legislation Senate Democrats filed last year to allow doctors to use their best medical judgments to determine when an abortion is medically necessary went nowhere. Similarly, legislation to make an exception for rape fell on deaf ears despite indications of bipartisan support.

What’s happening in Texas should serve as a dire warning for other states. Two studies released this week show what a post-Roe world really looks like.

A study released by the University of Houston provides concrete evidence of the consequences of Texas’ extreme ban. After Texas’ six-week ban went into effect in 2021, the Texas birth rate increased for the first time since 2014 while the national birth rate fell slightly. Most alarming was the teen birth rate increased in Texas for the first time in 15 years!

As we warned when S.B. 8 and H.B. 1280 were passed over our objections, women of color—who are more likely to face challenges accessing reproductive care due to income, inability to take time off from work, lack of transportation or childcare—have been the most affected.

A second study released by the Journal of the American Medical Association estimated there were 26,313 rape-related pregnancies in Texas since the state’s ban went into effect—nearly half of the estimated rape- related pregnancies of the 14 states with total abortion bans! These survivors of rape were left with no other option in Texas but to carry their rapist’s pregnancy to term.

These figures should outrage all of us. Women and girls across our state are enduring unwanted pregnancies, suffering from life-endangering complications in desired pregnancies and fleeing the state for medical care. We cannot allow this to be the new norm.

Texans deserve better from their state leaders. We will continue fighting for Texas women to be able to make their own health care decisions with their loved ones and their doctors.