Hank Johnson

In 2025, Hank Johnson shared a video with his new Fender Stratocaster, explaining that he was learning guitar.¹ He played a political version of “Hey Joe,” the song popularized by Jimi Hendrix.¹ He and his wife, Mereda Davis Johnson, a DeKalb County commissioner, have two adult children.²

Born in Washington, D.C., Johnson earned a political science degree at Clark College and a law degree at Texas Southern University's Thurgood Marshall School of Law.² He practiced law in Decatur for 27 years, handling criminal defense, civil rights and personal injury cases.²

Before entering Congress in 2007, he served as a magistrate judge for twelve years and a county commissioner for five.² He is now the top Democrat on the House Judiciary subcommittee covering courts, intellectual property, artificial intelligence and the internet.²

Johnson introduced the FAIR Act of 2025, which would block agreements requiring arbitration of future employment, consumer, antitrust and civil rights disputes.³ The proposal also seeks to protect participation in class and collective actions.³ Johnson says the legislation would preserve access to jury trials for workers and consumers who signed contracts requiring them to use arbitration when disputes arise.² He advocates Supreme Court term limits and stronger ethics rules for justices.² His opponent is Republican Jim Duffie.⁴