Outside of her job

Johnson’s title as U.S. House clerk isn’t the only label that defines her.

She’s also a walker. Every morning from 6:15-8:15 a.m., she walks about six miles on the Capital Crescent Trail with her friends before heading to work, and she participates in half marathons on occasion.

She also considers herself an avid gardener since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic when her neighbor offered her some seedlings. Today, her garden is filled with tomatoes, cucumbers, hot peppers, and jalapeno peppers.

Johnson also has a family. She is married and lives with her husband in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and raised a son.

She admits she’s passed down some of her traits to her 29-year-old son, who followed in her footsteps and graduated from Howard Law School. While she’s spent 32 years in public service, he works at a private sector law firm — but she considers him a writer like her.

“I was always, always making him write,” Johnson said. “As early as, as in grade school, I would have him rewrite things because the ability to write is so, so very important. “

Other hobbies, like cooking, that Johnson’s son picked up came from her family.

“My son, the men in my family, my brothers, my nephews, they have all taken up the cooking,” Johnson said. “And when men cook, they really put their heart and soul. My son really cooks well.”

Johnson admits she isn’t a cook herself, unlike her son.

Johnson said when looking back, she’s come full circle from a visit she took to D.C. at 15 years old to where she is today.

“I went in 11th grade, first time on an airplane, flew here to Washington D.C., and within two hours of us settling in, we literally checked in the hotels and came to Capitol Hill,” Johnson starts her story.

She was on a trip with the Close Up Foundation program that allows young people to stay a week in Washington D.C.

Johnson visited and sat in Barbara Jordan’s desk, who was one of her role models and the first African American woman elected to the U.S House of Representatives.

Johnson never met Jordan, but certainly knew of her.  When Jordan was in Congress, she was known to take command as a member of Congress. She particularly acquired her reputation during the Watergate scandal in 1974 with her involvement in the hearings on former President Richard Nixon’s impeachment.

And she was reminded of that experience at 15-years-old  during the Speaker of the House election.

“There was a lot of texting and Twitter and all of the other stuff that happened from Jan. 3 to Jan. 6,” Johnson recalls. “Someone [on Twitter] said ‘My commander in Those four days reminded her of Barbara Jordan.’”

Johnson said her son saw her tweet and brought it to her attention and told her that a stranger comparing her to one of the people Johnson admires speaks volumes of her character.

“I have a picture of me at age 15 sitting on the desk where Barbara Jordan sat in committee with her sign in front,” Johnson said. “I guess something really stuck with me when doing that week.”