Alexis Johnson is not what you expect
Republican nominee for CD3 urges people not to underestimate her
“This is going to be different in what people usually expect of a Republican,” Alexis Johnson said of her candidacy in the 3rd Congressional District.
Johnson won her party’s nomination for the northern New Mexico district that has long been occupied by Democrats. Just once since its inception in 1982 has a Republican represented the district, and even then under unusual circumstances and for an abbreviated term.
Bill Redmond won a special election 1997 after Bill Richardson resigned to become U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. He edged Democrat Eric Serna in a three-way race in which Green Party candidate Carol Miller pulled 17% of the vote, likely spoiling the election for Serna.
What Johnson meant was people usually expect the Republican nominee to be a white man. The party’s most recent general election entries for the CD3 race have been people named Jerald McFall, Michael Romero, Jefferson Byrd (twice), Thomas Mullins, Daniel East, Ronald Dolin and Gregory Tucker.
Constituents of the district
spanning the northern half of the state aren’t used to seeing a woman’s name on the ballot, and that goes for Democrats, too. But that changes dramatically this year as Johnson will face Democrat Teresa Leger Fernandez in November. In fact, all the finalists in races for New Mexico’s three congressional seats are women.
Johnson acknowledges she is the underdog against Leger Fernandez. But she was the underdog in the GOP primary, too. Despite receiving just 11% of the delegate vote at the party’s pre-primary convention in March and being outspent by her main rivals, Johnson prevailed in the June 2 primary, which wasn’t decided until June 6.
Due to a large number of absentee votes that overwhelmed election officials in Santa Fe County, the mother of four wasn’t named the winner until the Saturday following the election. According to unofficial results, Johnson won 37% of the vote, edging Harry Montoya, a former Democrat, by just 569 of more than 44,000 votes cast. Karen Bedonie, a Navajo woman from Mexican Springs, was third, with 28% of the vote.
“I started this candidacy with a voice of one. I had no power, I had no wealth, nothing,” said Johnson, who prevailed despite just $9,799 in campaign financing, $5,584 of which was of her own money.
There’s something else you wouldn’t expect from someone named Alexis Johnson. She’s not white, either.
“I’m a very proud Hispanic woman. I’m very proud to say I have Native American ancestry, and maybe people don’t want to talk about it, but I’m very proud to be a New Mexican,” she said during an interview last week at her Santa Fe home.
Johnson’s name comes from her husband, whose ancestry is Choctow and Scandinavian. And her Native American blood comes from her great-great grandmother, who was Apache.
But, most of all, she’s New Mexican.
Born in Portales, raised in Roswell, a Las Cruces High School graduate who earned a degree in environmental engineering from New Mexico Tech, Johnson calls herself an “everyday New Mexican.” She also sometimes calls herself Alexis Martinez Johnson, perhaps to emphasize what is not so obvious, though she says she pushes back against “identity politics.”
People want to put a label on you and say you’re either this or that; “I say we are all American,” she said.
Johnson said she had a humble, but happy, upbringing.
She and an older sister were raised by their grandparents, because her parents couldn’t afford to.
That wasn’t, and still isn’t, unusual in many parts of New Mexico, she said.
“We have something culturally where we take care of our own,” she said.
Her grandmother was a woman of faith, she said, and her grandfather was a kind, hardworking man, and together they taught her life’s values.
And while they lived in poverty, she didn’t know any different. They were a “typical New Mexican family,” she said. There was a lot of love in the household, and they instilled in her the belief that anything can be achieved through hard work and determination.
She recalled how she once offhandedly mentioned to her grandfather she wished she could get off the free lunch program so she could eat pizza, like her classmates who were better off. He then started slipping her a dollar or two, which she realized probably cost him a half hour of labor to earn.
“He wanted me to know that it is possible to achieve that American Dream on your own, with dignity and respect,” said Johnson, who otherwise doesn’t believe in handouts. “I don’t think it’s the job of any government to put programs out there and take away the opportunity to stand on your own two feet.”
Johnson found her footing and earned an academic scholarship to Vanderbilt University, but returned to New Mexico to be closer to her ailing grandmother. She finished school at New Mexico Tech in Socorro, where she met her husband, Chris Johnson.
While Alexis is now retired, Chris continues to work in the family business, EnXL, a Midland-based firm that manages projects for oil and gas producers. She notes the company employs New Mexicans on projects in the Hobbs area.
After graduation, Alexis went to work for Larson & Associates, an environmental consulting firm out of Midland, Texas.
“I went there because, when I graduated from New Mexico Tech, I was unable to find employment in New Mexico … I had to leave the state,” she said, adding that she wants to rectify that kind of circumstance for New Mexico’s college graduates by creating jobs at home.
She spent most of her career working in the oil-rich Permian Basin. She says her job involved working with federal regulators, local governments and stakeholders “to keep energy flowing, to keep people employed and to be respectful to our environment.”
Her college degree was in environmental engineering, and preserving and protecting New Mexico’s natural resources is important to her, she says.
“One thing I really wanted to do was take care of our environment and that is what my career has been based upon — to make sure our water is clean, our air is clean, and our land,” she said.
Johnson said people tend to take sides; they’re either all-in on fossil fuels or totally into sustainability. “And, in reality, it is neither one of those,” she said. “It’s a middle ground, where we come together and utilize our resources in the best manner possible.”
Johnson has strong views about abortion, gun rights and just about any of the “altruistic causes” favored by “Santa Fe elites.”
“I fight against these extreme, far-left ideologies in New Mexico, and it’s time to bring back the voice of the averageday New Mexican,” she said. “I’m a daughter of this state and I’m here to say, ‘Enough!’ ”
Johnson got emotional when speaking about abortion. Her youngest children, twins Vera and James, were born between 31 and 32 weeks into her pregnancy.
“And, right now, today, I can make a phone call and say I would like to end the life of my children when I’m 32 weeks pregnant. This is something that can be done today,” she said. “I can tell you right now that Democrats and independents are not going to go for the killing of a baby past 32 weeks. I say killing because that’s what it is.”
Johnson said she’s heard some women’s rights advocates say some children aren’t meant to live if their mother can’t take care of them. That upset her.
“I am one of those children,” she said, breaking down into tears.
Johnson is also passionate about gun rights, an issue she’s at odds over with progressive Democrats, but one that she feels has the support of most ruralliving New Mexicans.
A surprise winner of the Republican primary, Johnson believes her message is getting through to constituents in CD3, regardless of party affiliation. And that is what it will take to put a Republican back into seat represented by Democrats for 36 of the past 38 years.
“Something there is resonating,” she said. “The message of our faith, our family, our freedom and New Mexican pride is resonating with conservatives in New Mexico. And it’s going to bleed out into our Democrat community, as well as independents. So that is where I’m going. And you never want to underestimate an underdog, and that is pretty much what is occurring.”