During her campaign, Johnson spoke on topics important to her and her platform, including youth activism, women’s healthcare, LGBTQ rights, energy infrastructure and gun safety.

Johnson argues young people play a key role in pushing for change and stresses how important youth activism is for students who assume they can’t make an impact if they are below the legal voting age.

“There are a lot of people who are busy working multiple jobs and feel like their vote doesn’t matter,” Johnson said. “It’s [a younger] generation, who does not yet have the ability to vote that can remind somebody of the significant voice they have available to them, simply because they’re 18. What I always tell people is find out where you can be in this fight. If you can vote, vote. If you can’t vote, participate in the ways that you can.”

As an LGBTQ representative who’s been married to her wife, artist Sonya Cuellar, for seven years, Johnson advocates for the queer community’s rights when speaking about issues concerning trans athletes, trans restroom controversy, and others. Meeting with both her Republican and Democrat coworkers once or twice a week for dinner, Johnson uses the gatherings as an opportunity to oppose the anti-LGBTQ bills that damage the community, including the 21 introduced in 2021–now dead, by illustrating how they affect her. 

“I talk about my wife; it’s just a normal exposure for them about what my life, my world and my reality are,” Johnson said. “And maybe it softens their hearts a little bit to know that when they vote on these bills that are attacking our community, they’re really also personally attacking me.”

Johnson believes that finding common ground beyond political values is the key to effective change in government. She wants to ‘get beyond partisanship’ to find solutions that don’t center around political preference.

“If somebody’s a victim of a crime, rarely does somebody get asked ‘are you a Democrat or Republican,” Johnson said. “We want people to be safe, we want kids to be safe, regardless of what your partisan affiliation is. What if we focused on solving that problem?” 

The issue Johnson called ‘the most devastating piece of legislation passed in Texas’ is the Trigger Law passed on Aug. 25 that makes abortion in Texas a felony. Johnson believes that there is nuance to the issue.

“You never know what situation somebody is in. You never know what it would be like for them to have to give birth to a child,” Johnson said. “I trust Texas Women to make their decisions about their own health care. The civil bounty hunter bill, the trigger bans, those are complete removals of a woman’s moral compass around her own body and to me that is absolutely wrong.”

The representative also worries about the new Open Carry law regarding the 38 school shootings in 2022 so far — including the Robb Elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. 

“Anybody can walk around with a gun on their hip into any business and to me that is a significant concern for public safety — especially for kids, because guns are now the number one killer of kids,” Johnson said. “We didn’t address the issue; in fact, we made it worse. That’s devastating to me.”

Along with social issues, Johnson also wants to improve key infrastructure like the Texas energy grid, which – in the winter storm of Feb. 2021– allowed around 700 people to die due to various causes like hypothermia and carbon monoxide poisoning.

“Nobody should have died,” Johnson said. “We could have done things differently. And the people who are in leadership and the governor made different choices.”

In light of her former position as Chief Human Trafficking prosecutor of Harris County, Johnson makes sure to keep in mind her love of “advocating for people who can’t advocate for themselves’.

“I was representing kids in juvenile court who had mental health issues, and the state of Texas drastically cut our budget for kids with mental health, and that’s a population that needs our help the most,” Johnson said. “My commitment to running for office is I love advocating for those who can’t advocate for themselves.That’s what I love about this job. It gives me a chance to fight for the people that I know need to be fought for the most.”

Ryan McConnico, vice president and O&P operation at bureau veritas and Republican candidate for Texas Representative of District 134, is up for election on Nov. 5. His platform focuses on issues concerning the environment and energy industry, school curriculums, neighborhood safety and free speech.

McConicco grew up in central Texas and later attended Sam Houston State University where he studied economics and international business. During his senior year, McConnico was deployed down to Louisiana to aid in the cleanup of the BP oil spill before making a start in the Houston oil and gas industry.

“That got me into being environmentally conscious as well as the energy space and how those two industries come together,” McConnico said. “It was a really, really interesting foundation to start, and then I got into the oil and gas business here in Houston, Texas.”

McConnico’s two sons Lincoln and Graham are his motivation to run for representative.

“As a parent, I have a stake in society,” McConnico said. “I’m not doing it for myself anymore.”

McConnico also believes that there is a lot of distrust in our leaders and the institutions they stand for, so his goal is to ‘try and bring some authenticity’ to District 134.

“I’m running to restore trust to an office that’s in desperate need of that,” McConnico said. “This role is not about making yourself better. It’s bringing the community together and raising the tide for all ships.”

McConnico places extreme importance on environmental issues and the effect of the energy industry on our environment. Despite the ‘bad rap’  that McConnico says conservative Republicans get for ‘not caring about the environment’, he thinks wanting to take care of the planet is not an issue specific to one group.

“Everybody agrees that we have to get to a more sustainable energy place, but it’s how we get there and how long it takes as to where we differentiate,” McConnico said.

Creating safer neighborhoods and communities is the ‘number one’ issue for McConnico; something that he and other Republican candidates are addressing through funding law enforcement and bail reform policies. 

“These days I would be terrified to send my kids out in Houston unsupervised,” McConnico said. “We have a crime problem in Houston and Harris County, and it’s not just political rhetoric.” 

However, McConnico and other Republican candidates have ideas to fix the problem.

“I think funding law enforcement; getting more people back out on the streets is really important,” McConnico said. “Bail reform is very important. We need to address that at the state level.” 

McConnico considers providing ‘urban access to early education across the board’ to be crucial for child development and believes in focusing on the curriculum and teaching of fundamental skills. 

“Getting kids access to pre-kindergarten, learning their ABCs and the fundamentals is so critically important at an early age,” McConnico said. “Kids, having two of my own, I see it every day. They’re like sponges, and they just pick up on stuff. We have to get back to teaching the fundamentals of problem solving and critical thinking, so young people can take that into the world and apply it.”

For McConnico, the right to free speech is necessary for ‘forward thinking conversations’ and he strongly opposes its censorship by online platforms.

“Big tech, Facebook, Twitter, and all of these free speech platforms censoring and crushing dissenting thoughts and ideas, that’s not what made us great,” McConnico said. “What makes us great is that we can disagree. I want to be able to have philosophical, political, forward thinking conversations with people of diverse backgrounds and different perspectives, to where we can come up with the best solution to help as many people as possible.”

McConnico believes in supporting the community through charity work like delivering supplies and helping neighbors rebuild after Hurricane Harvey. He also works closely with the Masonic Charities and Family Services of Texas who provide scholarships for high school students and free dental hygiene kits for children. 

“I think that during a great tragedy is when you put down all your differences and really see what it’s about to be human,” McConnico said. “Helping out others is very important to me. As a conservative, I don’t want people to be dependent on the government; I would rather have charities and the community come together to help lift these people up, so I firmly believe in that. I try my best to put it into practice in my everyday life.”

If McConnico is elected representative this term, he hopes to “keep the district out of trouble” and take steps to “get us to where we need to be” through transparent leadership.

“It’s gonna be a close one. I hope people can see the authenticity and see that I’m trying to do the right thing,” McConnico said. “I think we need to change the direction and change the leadership to get back to some sense of normalcy and common sense.”