Close race expected between Johnson, Creuzot for Dallas County District Attorney

Voters across Dallas County will decide on Tuesday if current district attorney Faith Johnson will get to serve a full term or if John Creuzot will reclaim the office for Democrats.

The race for district attorney is the most competitive countywide contest in an area that is going increasingly blue with each election cycle.

Johnson was sworn in as DA in Jan. 2017 and has steadied an office thrown into chaos during the brief tenure of Susan Hawk. Creuzot is a former judge who is casting himself as a criminal justice reformer.

“What makes it more complex is that you've got two black candidates working out of South Dallas. One of them is a Republican who wouldn't seem to have much leverage there, but she’s got a church home at Potters House so she’s gonna get some of that vote in South Dallas and she’s going to be drawing much of the vote in North Dallas because she's a Republican,” said SMU political science professor Cal Jillson. “Creuzot should get most of South Dallas and is also credible among many whites in the northern part of the city.”

Jillson said it’s a hard race to judge because both names are relatively well known, which isn’t always the case at the county level. Johnson has also been a visible presence in the news, with recent successful prosecutions in high-profile cases.

“If he were running against a white Republican from North Dallas, he would win easily. But he isn’t. He's running against a black woman who has done credibly in her couple of years on the job, so there’s going to be people from all over the city looking at both of these candidates and puzzling about what they need to do,” Jillson said.