Constance N. Johnson

Connie Johnson
Member of the Oklahoma Senate from the 48th district
In office November 2005 – November 2014
Preceded by	Angela Monson
Succeeded by	Anastasia Pittman
Personal details
Born	1952 (age 64–65) Holdenville, Oklahoma, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Alma mater	University of Pennsylvania Langston University

Constance Nevlin "Connie" Johnson is an American politician from the U.S. state of Oklahoma. She served in the Oklahoma Senate, representing District 48, which encompasses portions of northeastern and northwestern Oklahoma County until 2014. She was first elected to the state senate in a special election in September 2005.

Johnson became the first black woman nominated for a major statewide office in Oklahoma and the first woman US Senate nominee from Oklahoma of any party when she won the Democratic primary run-off of the United States Senate special election in Oklahoma, 2014.

Born in Holdenville, Oklahoma, in 1952, she graduated from Frederick A. Douglass High School in Oklahoma City and earned a bachelor's degree in French from the University of Pennsylvania, where she also completed coursework for a Masters of Science in Education. After college she worked for the Oklahoma Community Action Director’s Association, the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) within the City of Oklahoma City, and as the personnel assistant within the General Administrator's office of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission. She earned a master's degree in Rehabilitation Counseling from Langston University.

Johnson worked for the Oklahoma State Senate as a legislative analyst from 1981 to 2005 when she won the Senate seat representing District 48 in a special election. She was re-elected in 2006 and 2010.

Senate Bill 1433, which sought to define human life as beginning at fertilization, would have offered full legal protection to all human embryos. In the words of the bill, “the unborn child at every stage of development (has) all the rights, privileges, and immunities available to other persons, citizens, and residents of this state.” Johnson submitted an amendment of her own to the bill, which would have added the words:

She explained that the amendment was intended to "draw attention to the absurdity, duplicity and lack of balance inherent in the policies of this state in regard to women". Her efforts were used as part of a skit that was featured on the Daily Show with John Steward entitled "Bro Choice," and, in conjunction with a rally organized by the newly created Oklahoma Coalition for Reproductive Justice, led to the defeat of the proposed legislation. At the rally, Johnson was joined by fellow state senator Judy Eason McIntyre, who was pictured holding up a protest sign that read "If I wanted the government in my womb, I would ___ a senator."

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