Dragon Ball Z composer wins Texas state Senate seat

PHOTOS: 2018 Midterm elections bring a slew of firsts Nathan Johnson beat his Republican opponent Don Huffines for Texas Senate District 16. The Dallas lawyer is known for composing the score to multiple episodes of the popular television series Dragon Ball Z. >>> See what other candidates broke new ground with wins in the 2018 Midterms less Nathan Johnson beat his Republican opponent Don Huffines for Texas Senate District 16. The Dallas lawyer is known for composing the score to multiple episodes of the popular television series Dragon Ball Z. PHOTOS: 2018 Midterm elections bring a slew of firsts Nathan Johnson beat his Republican opponent Don Huffines for Texas Senate District 16. The Dallas lawyer is known for composing the score to multiple Nathan Johnson beat his Republican opponent Don Huffines for Texas Senate District 16. The Dallas lawyer is known for composing the score to multiple ... more Photo: Nathan Johnson Campaign Website Photo: Nathan Johnson Campaign Website Image 1 of / 17 Caption Close Dragon Ball Z composer wins Texas state Senate seat 1 / 17 Back to Gallery

Nathan Johnson may now be the only Texas legislator who has compared politics to Dragon Ball Z, one of most popular anime television series in the world.

The Dallas attorney who beat Republican State Senator Don Huffines in the 2018 Midterms happened to compose the score to multiple Dragon Ball Z episodes in the early 2000s. He also scored five of the series' films, according to the Dallas Morning News.

In a 2018 Midterm election that resulted in an avalanche of "firsts" for minority and female candidates, Johnson's victory added one more unusual story to the list.

"One of the things that is comparable to my political philosophy, is that in Dragon Ball you have episodes that deal with a set of very different kinds of people—sometimes different species and people from other planets—but they have to work together," Johnson told fansite the Dao of Dragon Ball during his campaign.

MIDTERM ELECTIONS: Here's how your neighbor voted in the Ted Cruz, Beto O'Rourke race

Johnson will now represent Texas Senate District 16, which includes much of north Dallas.

A graduate of the University of Texas School of Law in 1993, he worked as an attorney in Dallas for seven years before he quit and devoted himself to music full time, he told the fansite. He said he studied song composition for opera, film and television.

Eventually, Johnson started looking for a building to open his own private law practice after he said his music career was going nowhere. That's when he said he met the owner of a prospective property, Robert Cocanaugher, who also happened to be a co-founder of anime distribution network Funimation, according to Polygon.

The studio produced Dragon Ball Z, and Johnson said Cocanaugher was looking for a composer for the show. Johnson said he got the job after showing some samples of his work.

"It was one of the most bizarre collisions of circumstance I've ever experienced," Johnson told the Dao of Dragon Ball.

He eventually returned to law in 2007, but his connection with the show lives on in his political philosophy.

"Tell me, how many times do we see a character's unusual characteristic become vital due to a combination of unusual characteristics in the team that ends up winning the day?" he asked in the interview. "I like that about the Dragon Ball spirit, or model."

Julian Gill is a digital reporter in Houston. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, houstonchronicle.com. | julian.gill@chron.com | Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message