Joyce Johnson makes her way down a long stretch of Columbus Avenue on a recent morning, her nonchalance belying the fact that she’s on a serious mission. Dressed in sweatpants, a Howard University T-shirt, and an Obama bandanna, everything about this middle-aged woman is nondescript—an odd trait for a congressional candidate looking to separate herself from her contenders. But the minute she begins posting her campaign flier to a telephone pole, the intrigue begins.
“Wow, is that you in those photos? You’re actually doing your own campaign work?” one passerby asks incredulously.
On instinct, as though this were a scene she had long rehearsed, Johnson responds: “As a woman, isn’t that what we always do? We simply get it done.”
This was typical Johnson rhetoric, the tip of the iceberg in her efforts to carve her own niche in the race for Rep. Charles Rangel’s seat in the 15th Congressional District. In a Democratic primary challenge against four men, she’s a standout by default. But, though Congress is overwhelmingly male-dominated—fewer than 18 percent of House seats are held by women—Johnson argues that her gender offers her a distinct advantage.
“I always knew there was going to be an edge. These guys are very verbose,” Johnson told Spectator in an interview in her Upper West Side apartment. “The response from younger women has been overwhelming, the ones who are 25 to 40. No one can claim that constituency like I can.”
Johnson is no stranger to being the black sheep. Growing up, she was the only girl and had five brothers—but rather than stay in her room to play dress-up and toy with Barbie dolls on her own, she quickly took the reins among her siblings, earning the moniker “general” in the process.
“We had an army, my brothers and I, and they always said that Joyce was the general,” she said.
Living and working in male-dominated spheres soon became a theme in her life. She graduated from Howard with a degree in microbiology, which at the time was a largely male field. After college, she worked for eight years in manufacturing operations—also a men’s industry. But like the young girl who had ascended to the top of the Johnson family hierarchy, she quickly climbed the ranks of management, eventually landing herself a job at corporate headquarters.
She was soon appointed director of equal employment opportunity at the company. Bearing witness to what she perceived as unjust treatment of minorities, she became eager to improve working conditions for the disadvantaged. Thus began her segue into the world of politics.
“I served my tenure as director during the Reagan-Bush era, so I saw the dismantling of affirmative action, and I just had so much frustration,” Johnson said. “I do believe the way to public policy is through legislative action, and I wanted to do something more with my life.”
Following in the footsteps of her politically active parents—her father was elected to the common council in Westchester, and her mother was the first black educator in the Poughkeepsie, N.Y. school system—Johnson became a Democratic district leader with a club called Community Free Democrats. It was during this time that she crossed paths with such political dignitaries as Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and New York Democratic Party Executive Director Charlie King, and she was immediately inspired to pursue a more defined political path.
She soon got her first taste of defeat, and certainly not her last. She made an unsuccessful run for the New York State Assembly in 2002 and lost again when she ran for New York City Council in 2005. Undeterred, she said she is optimistic about her third run for office.
“The third time is the charm,” she said.
This optimism comes on the heels of some major strides she’s made in recent weeks. In a poll taken in July, Johnson received the third largest number of projected votes, coming in behind the two expected frontrunners: incumbent Rangel and challenger Adam Clayton Powell IV. The New York Times recently endorsed her, calling her “a strong advocate for women’s rights and civil rights for many years.” The endorsement was a defining moment in her campaign, helping her reel in some much-needed money from donors—though not nearly enough to make her a formidable candidate.
Like some other cash-strapped candidates in the race, Johnson is facing an uphill battle against Rangel, who has a 20-to-1 financial advantage, according to recent Federal Election Commission reports. While Johnson said she plans to spend $80,000 on her campaign, she has raised only about $55,000.
“The money was hard because a lot of my supporters were also supporters of Charlie, and they wanted to remain loyal,” Johnson said. “And then there’s another set of people who might have wanted to support me, but they couldn’t because they were scared to [reject the incumbent].”
It’s clear that she’s in deep financial straits. Her two-bedroom apartment doubles as her campaign headquarters. Dozens of bags filled with campaign literature and other Johnson paraphernalia are spread out on her couches. Two large calendars are posted on the wall, reminding Johnson of upcoming television appearances, candidate forums, and campaign events. Volunteers shuffle in and out, making for cramped but lively living quarters.
“I actually found the perfect campaign office back in July on Malcolm X Boulevard and 110th,” Johnson said. But there were a few sticking points: “It didn’t have electricity, no light,” she said. “We tried for the longest time to make it work, but that didn’t happen.”
All economic setbacks aside, there are some factors working in Johnson’s favor. The 67th and 69th State Assembly districts on the Upper West Side have among the highest voter turnout rates in the country, and she says she is in a favorable position to win them.
Her campaign has made a concerted effort to focus on those areas, hoping to shore up support for Johnson where Rangel is less popular.
“I know it’s supposed to be hopeless, but we don’t believe that,” said Melissa Salmons, one of Johnson’s loyal campaign volunteers. “I think it’s her time, and I think there’s a great deal more dissatisfaction with Rangel than you would necessarily know.”
And despite the odds against her, Johnson went so far as to jokingly promise her campaign volunteers some champagne tomorrow evening.
“I believe I have a chance to upset him [Rangel]. He is still seen as formidable, but I think I’ve played this brilliantly on my last several TV appearances,” Johnson said. “I said on TV, a woman’s place is in the House—the House of Representatives. And they loved that.”
But while Johnson is strong on light-hearted, catchy phrases, she seems weaker on concrete platform issues. Like some other candidates who have yet to hammer out tangible proposals, she speaks broadly of her plans for the office should she be elected. She invokes the skills she’s gained from past job experiences, some of which may run counter to the makings of a good politician.
“I’m not a policy wonk—I’m a manager and a leader,” she said. “My greatest gift is the ability to bring people together, to sit down collectively to talk about an issue in depth.”
At the same time, though, she has a deeply empathetic side to her, perhaps reflecting a maternal instinct.
She described visiting the scene of a major shooting in Washington Heights recently and seeing the blood of a young man who was killed. Her voice, normally animated and clear, took on a suddenly somber tone.
“I just don’t even have any words to describe it,” she said.
It is this trait of compassion, perhaps above all others, that would serve her best in a district riddled with crime, poverty, and broken homes. If elected, Johnson said she would start a fund to support youth service programs. She proposed partnering with other local elected officials, using them as “satellite offices” to ensure that there is a broad youth service network throughout the district.
“This really becomes about children who have no other alternatives,” she said. “Maybe they’re coming from a dysfunctional family, member they’re raising themselves.”
Indeed, Johnson is the only one of Rangel’s four challengers who actively discusses the familial difficulties that plague many district residents. She emphasized her genuine concern for the people in her district, a point underscored as she continuously checked in on her volunteers during the interview. And she said it is her role as a woman—as a sympathetic, understanding, and selfless person—that makes her worthy of a position in which those attributes are required.
“A woman’s work is never done in the political structure,” Johnson said. “In the club structure, the guys come in and they automatically announce they want to be president, and you often find it’s the women who are doing everything, because we don’t think of ourselves in a leadership capacity first. We see stuff to be done and we do it.”
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