Meet Connie

Constance Nevlin (Connie) Johnson was born in Holdenville, Oklahoma in 1952. A proud graduate of Oklahoma City's historic Frederick A. Douglass High School, she earned her bachelor's degree in French from the University of Pennsylvania and a master's degree in Rehabilitation Counseling from Langston University.

Her professional career began with 24 years as a senior legislative analyst for the Oklahoma State Senate, where she served under every senator elected to District 48 since 1965. This deep institutional knowledge gave her an unparalleled understanding of how Oklahoma's government works — and how to make it work for the people.

In 2005, she was elected to represent Senate District 48 — Oklahoma City's predominantly Black Eastside — becoming only the fourth person to ever hold the seat. During her tenure, she authored, advanced, and enacted legislation on health care, criminal justice reform, cannabis policy, women's rights, education, minority access to contracts, and veterans' issues.

She made history in 2014 as the first African American/Choctaw to secure a major party nomination for the U.S. Senate in Oklahoma. As former Vice Chair of the Oklahoma Democratic Party, she blew the whistle on a gag order that prohibited Democrats from discussing reproductive health, immigration, death penalty abolition, and marijuana policy reform.

Senator Johnson has continued her work in civic engagement as immediate past chair of the NAACP Oklahoma State Conference Civic Engagement/Political Action Committee. She has chaired the State Convention Planning Committee, and was the keynote speaker for the NAACP Missouri State Conference of Branches Freedom Fund Banquet. She resides in Forest Park, OK, and is a proud mother, grandmother ("Mi Mi"), and devoted companion to her rescue Shih Tzu, Lacey.