Hank Johnson

But he had effectively assured himself of a seat in Congress by winning the primary: with a Cook Partisan Voting Index of D+22, the 4th was the second-most Democratic district in Georgia (only the neighboring 5th, covering most of Atlanta, was more Democratic).

Johnson made aggressive use of the internet to court supporters and attract national attention to his primary challenge to McKinney.

Henry Calvin Johnson Jr. (born October 2, 1954) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representative for GA's 4th congressional district since 2007.

He is a member of the Democratic Party.

The district is anchored in Atlanta's inner eastern suburbs, including Decatur, all of Rockdale County, Lithonia, Stone Mountain, Covington and a sliver of Atlanta itself.

Johnson is one of only three Buddhists to have served in the United States Congress.

The others are Senator Mazie Hirono and former Representative Colleen Hanabusa, both of Hawaii.

Johnson grew up in Washington, D.C. His father worked for the Bureau of Prisons and was the director of classifications and paroles.

Up to that time, he was the highest ranking African-American in the bureau.

Johnson received his B.A. degree from Clark College (now Clark Atlanta University) in 1976, is a member of Omega Psi Phi Kappa Alpha Alpha Chapter, Decatur, Georgia, and received his J.D. degree from Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School of Law in Houston in 1979; he practiced law in Decatur, Georgia, for more than 25 years.

From 1989 to 2001, Johnson served as an associate judge of the DeKalb County magistrate's court.

He was elected to the DeKalb County Commission in 2000 and served from 2001 to 2006.

In 2006, Johnson challenged Representative Cynthia McKinney in the Democratic primary for the 4th district—the real contest in this heavily Democratic, black-majority district.

He forced McKinney into a runoff by holding her under 50% in the July 18 primary: McKinney got 47.1% of the vote; Johnson 44.4%, and a third candidate 8.5%.

In the August 8 runoff, although there were about 8,000 more voters, McKinney got about the same number of votes as in the July primary.

Johnson won with 41,178 votes (59%) to McKinney's 28,832 (41%).

On October 6, 2006, Congressional Quarterly's "On Their Way", which features promising candidates soon to arrive in Washington, featured Johnson.

In November, Johnson defeated the Republican nominee, Catherine Davis, with 76% of the vote—one of the largest percentages for a Democrat in a contested election, and the largest in the district's history.

The National Journal wrote that of all Congressional candidates nationwide in 2006, "Johnson had the most unique blog strategy by far."

The National Journal ranked Johnson's use of the internet to defeat McKinney—and the broader trend of challengers using the blogosphere to challenge entrenched incumbents—as the third most significant blog-related story of 2006.

Johnson was the first Congressional candidate invited to blog for The Hill's Congress Blog, typically reserved for members of Congress.

"I'm tremendously excited about the opportunity to use this unique medium to strengthen democracy by increasing open interaction between constituents and candidates," Johnson wrote.

"I hope to provide you with an inside view of this hotly- [sic]contested, high stakes runoff."

On July 30, 2007, Johnson was the first Democratic congressman in Georgia to publicly endorse Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary.

Johnson was reelected over the Republican nominee, business owner Liz Carter, receiving 131,760 of 176,467 votes, or 74.67%.

Carter, who is white, made headlines during the campaign by maintaining that she had been initially barred from appearing at a candidate forum hosted by Newsmakers Journal due to her race, an assertion the forum's organizers denied.

On January 25, 2007, Johnson responded to U.S. President George W. Bush's State of the Union address by criticizing the war in Iraq, saying, "This war has proven to be one of the gravest missteps in the recent history of our country. It is time for President Bush to face the music and respond to the urgent demands of a frustrated country."

On February 8, 2007, Johnson introduced his first bill: a resolution requesting that the Secretary of Defense Robert Gates take U.S. troops off of street patrol duty in Iraq.

"There is no military solution for the civil war in Iraq", Johnson said.

"It is time for Iraqi troops, who have been trained, to assume responsibility for patrolling their own streets. Clearly, deploying our troops this way has only escalated the number of U.S. casualties, and this must stop".

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Johnson's resolution was "interesting in that it goes beyond broad directives and proposes something very specific".

On March 23, 2007, Johnson voted to pass H.R. 1591 and attracted attention by blogging about his decision to vote for it.

Johnson was unopposed for reelection in 2008, winning 99.9% of the vote against write-in candidates Loren Christopher Collins, Faye Coffield and Jacob Perasso.

On November 18, 2008, the Democratic Caucus elected Johnson Regional Whip for the Eighth Region (GA, FL, MS, AL, U.S. Virgin Islands).

On November 4, 2012, Johnson won an uncontested general election.

On November 4, 2014, Johnson won an uncontested general election.

On November 8, 2016, Johnson won reelection over Republican Victor Armendariz.

On November 6, 2018, Johnson won reelection over Republican Joe Profit.

On November 3, 2020, Johnson won reelection over Republican Johsie Ezammudeen.

On November 8, 2022, Johnson won reelection over Republican Jonathan Chavez.