First elected in 2018, Senator Nathan Johnson was born and raised in Texas. His vision for Texas is one of hope and aspiration, believing that Texas can lead the nation if it tackles the challenges it faces in a forward-thinking and innovative way.

“I’ve raised kids in Dallas. I love the state… I think we’re poised to really be the envy of the nation if we do things right. And, I’m in government because I want to help us get there.”  

Johnson, who lived all over the state of Texas for more than 30 years, believes that human infrastructure like health care, physical infrastructure like electric grid reliability and trust in government are among the issues that he hopes to continue to tackle as a State Senator. 

“I think of health care as infrastructure… without a system of health, whether it’s public health or private sector health that’s not there. Nothing works.” 

Before being elected to the State Senate, Johnson received his Bachelors of Science in physics from the University of Arizona then his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Texas School of Law. He is an attorney in his professional life and says he tries to blend that legal expertise with a strong focus on his community in his service to his constituents.

In the interview, Johnson offered a new perspective on infrastructure, acknowledging its traditional components like roads, bridges, and utilities, but also what he believes are vital social systems such as health care and education. 

“Public education is the second system that I think we have to regard as infrastructure. If you are not educating people, everything else fails.” 

On the physical infrastructure side, Johnson provided his insight into a critical situation regarding the state’s water supply. 

“What we’re talking about is Texas is running out of water.” 

He sees the rapid population growth in Texas and the need for better water management as contributing factors. 

“We have massive growth in industry that is really beneficial to Texas… and we have a very high evaporation rate.” 

In preparing the state for future prosperity, Johnson said the legislature and state need to look at “planning reservoirs, investing in reservoirs” and considering “desalination plants down near the Gulf.” 

“The state’s job is not as simple as just cutting a check, but figuring out how we can pursue multiple avenues for increasing supply and reducing demand. We need to kind of step back a little bit and make some long-term planning that has input from everybody.” 

Moving beyond water, the conversation turned to energy, specifically the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, better known as ERCOT, which has been embroiled in controversial incidents of grid failures during extreme weather. Johnson said that while the public scrutiny of ERCOT may be waning, he believes there is strong potential for future challenges.

“If next summer is really hot, people will start to pay attention and scrutinize them a little bit more.” 

Johnson believes the state needs to balance renewable energy sources with more traditional forms of energy to ensure grid reliability. 

“What’s kind of fun in the energy space is we’ve reached a moment where I think both of those ways of generating power are dependent upon one another now.” 

He is still focused on the significant potential growth in electricity demand in Texas driven in part by new industries, saying, “we’re going to need every solar panel, every wind turbine, every gas generator that we can possibly have operating reliably over the next five years.” 

Johnson sees the rise of cryptocurrency mining operations and data centers in Texas as posing a unique challenge for energy management. In 2023, he authored a bill requiring the crypto mining industry to disclose their energy consumption to ERCOT and to provide more information on their operations.

“My bill was essentially just to require the crypto industry to be open with ERCOT and provide information on their operations.” 

In addition to demand for water, Johnson is also concerned about the housing supply in Texas. He said he is actively working to address the pressing issue of housing, particularly in urban areas like Austin and Dallas. 

His proposed Senate Bill 234 aims to incentivize the construction of 200,000 to 300,000 middle-income housing units. 

“Developers aren’t building enough affordable housing. No one is building these kind of mid-market homes but if we incentivize construction of those, we’re going to see less pressure on lower-income housing.” 

He believes that effort combined with other reforms will “take pressure off of rising home prices and literally provide people places to live.” 

His legislative proposal seeks to establish programs to provide low-interest loans to developers who build those mid-market units.