Church of Christ member rose from humble roots to lead nation’s ninth-largest city.
By Bobby Ross Jr. | The Christian Chronicle
On the morning after winning election as the next mayor of Dallas, Eric Johnson returned to his roots — the Dallas West Church of Christ.
At the congregation where the 43-year-old lawyer and state representative grew up, fellow Christians formed a circle, held hands and prayed for Johnson’s success leading the city of 1.3 million people.
“Every single time that I have stood before the voters of Dallas, I have put my faith in two places — in the good Lord above and in the voters,” Johnson said in his victory speech Saturday night. “And in every case, I have not been let down. Ever.”
Johnson, a member of the Mountain View Church of Christ in Dallas, captured 56 percent of the vote in Saturday’s runoff election.
In defeating Dallas City Council member Scott Griggs, Johnson “campaigned on bringing the city together to solve its nagging problems, effectively casting Griggs as a dangerous divider who would set the city backward,” the Dallas Morning News reported.
The little boy from a working-class family attended first grade at C.F. Carr Elementary School — within walking distance of the Dallas West church — before receiving a Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Dallas scholarship to attend a private school. He later earned degrees from three Ivy League universities.
This story appears in the online edition of The Christian Chronicle.
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