AUSTIN, Texas — When Eddie Bernice Johnson announced Saturday that she would be retiring next year from Congress, she said she was proud of all she had brought home to her district during the course of her three decades in office serving southern Dallas County.

What You Need To Know

  • U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson will retire after nearly 30 years as south Dallas County’s congresswoman

  • Johnson said her proudest moment was getting free breakfasts for low-income students mandated in Texas

  • Johnson has said she is looking to endorse a woman candidates to replace her

"I’m proud of what I’ve done because there’s no Texan in the history of this state, who has brought more home,” she said Saturday as she made her retirement official during a press conference. Johnson was first elected to Texas' 30th Congressional District in 1992.

But what Johnson, 85, told Spectrum News 1 she is most proud of is legislation she pushed through the Texas Legislature during her second term as a state representative. 

That’s when the congresswoman, who was the first Black woman to be elected to office from Dallas, got a bill passed that mandated free breakfast for low-income children at school as long as the federal government sponsored the program. 

Although that law was challenged by at least two Texas school districts, the Texas Supreme Court upheld the law. Johnson said she couldn’t have predicted the longevity of the program at the time she proposed the bill, nor could she have known the impact it would have on low-income students.

But some 45 years later, Johnson said she still gets annual updates on the program’s impact on Texas’ low-income students.

“I’ve very pleased that the Dept. of Agriculture gives me updates on their improvements in student participation as well as their achievements when they can come to school and get breakfast and not have to try and remember things on an empty stomach,” Johnson said in an interview Tuesday on Capital Tonight.  

“In the long run, that will always be one of my proudest pieces of legislation,” she said.

Johnson’s decision to retire at the end of her term in January 2023 came as no surprise. At the launch of her last reelection campaign in 2019, Johnson said it would likely be her last.

Already, several candidates have announced the launch of their own campaigns to win her seat, a solidly Democratic district. All those running to replace her will no doubt be looking for her endorsement as well.

Johnson has been clear that she will throw her support behind a female candidate.

“I would like to promote women where I can because there were women who helped me come along,” she told Capital Tonight. “Women still are in smaller numbers in leadership roles and elected office in every level across the country, and yet every issue is a woman’s issue.”

Women know more about how to achieve and to advocate issues in which they have experience of their own, she said.

“When I started out, as you know, there were not many women who preceded me,” she said.  “But I do not want to walk away from this office without making sure that a woman has had the opportunity to replace me.”  

Does the congresswoman have any regrets about her nearly 50 years in politics?

“The things undone and regrets are endless,” she said. “I’ve never been able to please myself in many levels of achievement that I’d like to.”

What she can say is “that I gave it my all to achieve where I could,” she said.