Yarbrough wins Texas House election for redistricted Julie Johnson seat

Texas Republican House candidate Jace Yarbrough is projected to win the open seat to lead the state’s redistricted 32nd District and replace Rep. Julie Johnson (D-Texas), per Decision Desk HQ.

The attorney defeated Richardson City Council member Dan Barrios (D) in the district redrawn to favor Republicans last year. Johnson opted to run in the nearby 33rd District but lost to former Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas) in the primary.

Yarbrough notched support from several prominent Republicans, including President Trump and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R). Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel, who previously supported Trump and has ties with Vice President Vance, sent two $3,500 donations to Yarbrough’s campaign in December 2025, one for the primary and one for the general election, according to Federal Election Commission filings .

Yarbrough faced a GOP runoff against businessman Ryan Binkley, but Binkley withdrew in March after the initial primary, where Yarbrough finished in first place with more than 48.9 percent of the vote. Binkley credited Yarbrough for running a “disciplined campaign” at the time and expressed excitement to see how Yarbrough would do in the House.

In February, Yarbrough took part in a forum hosted by conservative news site The Dallas Express, where he expressed views that critics have condemned as extremist. He called for repealing the 1965 Hart-Celler Act, which put an end to race-based immigration quotas, and claimed that “hordes of Islamic immigrants” came to the U.S. to “set up” Sharia law.

“The kind of good government that I want to offer, that you and I agree with –– they call it bigoted and backward and oppressive and Nazi-ish,” he said at the forum. “I am past trying to placate that in any way, shape or form.”

The Stanford Law School graduate served as the president of his alma mater’s chapter of the Federalist Society . He later served in the U.S. Air Force and remains active in the Air Force Reserve.