Eric Johnson

Eric Lynn Johnson (born October 10, 1975) is an American politician and attorney who has served as the 60th mayor of Dallas, Texas, since June 2019.

A Republican since September 2023, Johnson previously served as a Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives, where he represented District 100 in the cities of Dallas and Mesquite.

Johnson was born on October 10, 1975, in Dallas, Texas.

He attended Dallas ISD schools until the second grade, when he received a scholarship to attend Greenhill School through the West Dallas Boys & Girls Club.

He served as the vice chairman of both the House natural resources committee and the House general investigating and ethics committee, and was the only member of the 83rd Texas legislature to serve as vice chairman of two standing house committees.

Johnson also served on the House elections committee, the House select committee on transparency in state agency operations, and the Joint House and Senate committee on higher education governance, excellence and transparency.

He has previously served on the House committees on appropriations, higher education, and the interim committee on manufacturing.

Upon becoming mayor of Dallas, Johnson vacated House district 100 seat, and his successor was determined in a special election.

Committee assignments by legislative session:

Johnson graduated from Greenhill School in 1994.

Johnson went on to attend Harvard University and was a resident of Cabot House.

He was initiated into Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity his second year and headed up the community service efforts of both that organization and the Harvard Black Students Association, which earned him both the John Lord O’Brian and Stride Rite scholarships from Harvard College for his commitment to community service.

The summer between his junior and senior year of college, Johnson studied public policy at the Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley as part of the Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) Fellowship Program.

While at Harvard, Johnson was involved with the Phillips Brooks House, Harvard's premier community service organization, where he served as the director of the Cambridge Youth Enrichment Program (CYEP), a summer program for the children who lived in the public housing projects in the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Johnson lived in the public housing project that he served for the duration of the summer.

After graduating from Harvard cum laude in 1998 with a degree in history, Johnson returned to Dallas to work as an investment banker with Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, and then as an aide to state representative Yvonne Davis.

After the 76th Texas Legislature adjourned in May 1999, he moved to New York City for three months to work as a graduate intern for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund doing research to support several of their desegregation lawsuits in the Deep South and also to combat the proposed elimination of remedial education on City University of New York system campuses.

Johnson earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he was a public interest scholar and a member of the Journal of International Economic Law, and a Master of Public Affairs from the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, both in 2003.

Johnson was admitted to the State Bar of Texas in November 2003.

He previously served as Of Counsel to Andrews Kurth Kenyon LLP and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP in Dallas, Texas.

He is currently a partner with the international law firm of Locke Lord LLP.

Johnson was sworn in as a member of the Texas House of Representatives on April 20, 2010, filling the vacant seat he won in a special election.

Prior to the special election, Johnson defeated the longtime incumbent state representative, who was under federal indictment at the time related to corruption and abuse of office charges, in the 2010 Democratic Primary with 75 percent of the vote.

Johnson was reelected in the November elections of 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018.

Johnson founded and served as the chairman of the Young Texans Legislative Caucus (YTLC), which focuses on transportation, education, water, infrastructure, and other issues of interest to younger Texans.

YTLC is open to Texas state representatives who are either under the age of 40 or represent a district that has a population under 40 that is greater than the state average of 58%.

81st (2010)

82nd (2011)

83rd (2013)

84th (2015)

85th (2017)

86th (2019)

On June 8, 2019, Johnson was elected mayor of Dallas, defeating his opponent, city councilman Scott Griggs, in a runoff election.

It was announced that he would take office on June 17, 2019.

With his election, Johnson became the second African-American mayor to be elected in Dallas history (the first being Ron Kirk) and one of the youngest mayors of a major American city.

He was sworn in as mayor on June 17, 2019, by U.S. District Court Judge Sam Lindsay.

In May 2023, Johnson was re-elected as mayor with 93% of the vote, garnering the highest vote share of any candidate since 1909.

In August 2019, it was announced Johnson took a job as a partner at Locke Lord.

The position raised concerns about conflicts of interest as the firm had clients within the city government, including city employee retirement and pension funds.

Locke Lord stated that it would implement a firewall between Johnson and any conflicts of interest he would encounter.