Republican Mike Johanns is a former governor and U.S. secretary of Agriculture in the Bush administration who, like fellow ex-governor and GOP cabinet official Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, is conservative but willing to collaborate with Democrats. Johanns announced on Feb. 18, 2013 that he would not seek a second Senate term in 2014. He said in a statement that he and his wife, Stephanie, agreed that "it is time to close this chapter of our lives." Read More

Republican Mike Johanns is a former governor and U.S. secretary of Agriculture in the Bush administration who, like fellow ex-governor and GOP cabinet official Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, is conservative but willing to collaborate with Democrats. Johanns announced on Feb. 18, 2013 that he would not seek a second Senate term in 2014. He said in a statement that he and his wife, Stephanie, agreed that "it is time to close this chapter of our lives."

Johanns grew up on a dairy farm in Osage, Iowa, and started doing chores at age 4. He attended college in Minnesota, earned a law degree at Creighton University in Omaha, and, after clerking for a judge there for a year, settled into a career in Nebraska rather than returning to his native state. He practiced law in O’Neill and got involved in local politics in 1982, when he was elected to the Lancaster County Board of Commissioners. He also served on the Lincoln City Council and was elected mayor of Lincoln in 1991. Johanns was a Democrat until 1988.

Though re-elected mayor of Lincoln in 1995, Johanns began laying the groundwork for a gubernatorial run in 1998 by traveling to each of the state’s 93 counties. He faced vigorous competition in the Republican primary. State Auditor John Breslow had a large campaign treasury, and 2nd District House Rep. Jon Christensen had strong support from religious conservatives. A week before the May primary, Christensen distributed fliers accusing Johanns of allowing obscene and racist broadcasts to air on Lincoln’s public access cable channel. Johanns maintained that he had, in fact, tried to stop the broadcasts, and the state’s nationally respected senator, Republican Chuck Hagel, called the flier “absolute trash.” This was a high-spending contest. Breslow spent $3.8 million, Christensen $1.8 million, and Johanns $1.7 million. Johanns prevailed with 40% of the vote to 30% for Breslow and 28% for Christensen. In the general election, Johanns faced Democrat Bill Hoppner, longtime aide to former Sens. James Exon and Bob Kerrey. The campaign was conducted civilly but with major differences on issues. Johanns’ solid conservatism was more in step with the Republican leanings of the state and he won, 54% to 46%.

As governor, Johanns’ low-key nature belied his strong policy convictions. During his first term, he vetoed 26 bills in five days, the state’s strongest use of the veto pen in a decade. He vetoed a moratorium on the death penalty and a bill raising elected officials’ salaries and his own salary from the nation’s lowest, $65,000 annually. He got passed a $10 million bill for tax credits and entrepreneurship grants to firms that opened businesses in rural areas. In 2001, Nebraska’s revenues started coming in below estimates, but Johanns pushed ahead with plans to cut spending by $171 million. “I’m not here to sign tax increases,” he said. “Government tends to operate better when it’s under pressure.” In 2002, state revenues decreased further, but Johanns vetoed temporary increases in the sales, income, and cigarette taxes, though the legislature overrode his vetoes. Johanns was easily re-elected in 2002 without a serious challenge. During his second term, he joined President George W. Bush’s Cabinet as Agriculture secretary.

In that role, Johanns more than doubled the number of acres in conservation programs nationwide and focused on opening foreign markets to domestic farm products. By far his biggest undertaking was representing the administration on Capitol Hill as Congress wrote the 2008 bill governing farm and agricultural programs. The administration wanted to reduce farm spending by $88 billion over five years and eliminate government payments to farmers who made more than $200,000 a year, a proposal aimed at complying with international demands to reduce farm subsidies in the United States. Although Johanns and the president were in agreement on the bill, both chambers of Congress opposed it. Top Democrats on the Agriculture committees widely criticized Johanns for leaving the post to run for the Senate in the middle of the negotiations to pass a farm bill, which was set to expire at the end of 2007.

His election to the Senate in 2008 was two years later than some Republicans envisioned. The GOP had heavily courted Johanns to challenge Sen. Ben Nelson, a Democrat who was up for re-election in 2006. Several months later, Johanns apparently saw the opportunity he was waiting for. Hagel announced his retirement in September 2007, leaving an open Senate seat, an easier mark than one inconveniently occupied by an incumbent. Johanns quit his administration job and returned home to campaign.

When jockeying for the Senate began, other prominent Republicans, including Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning and Omaha Mayor Hal Daub, were contenders, with Bruning able to raise an impressive $780,000 a year out from the election. But the two men stepped aside as it became increasingly clear that Johanns would win. For the general election, national Democrats aggressively tried to recruit Kerrey, but he opted to remain in his job as president of the New School in New York City. The Democrats turned to rancher and college instructor Scott Kleeb, who in 2006 came within 10 percentage points of winning the open House seat in Nebraska’s heavily Republican 3rd District.

Johanns and Kleeb differed on a variety of issues. Johanns advocated increased offshore drilling and exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, while Kleeb said he favored more “green” solutions to energy shortages, such as the development of wind energy, ethanol, and biofuels. They also clashed on the seriousness of global warming. Kleeb called the issue a “moral test” for policy leaders, and Johanns took the more typically conservative position that potential fixes should take the costs to industry into account and that reducing carbon emissions to the levels touted by his opponent was unrealistic.

Nelson criticized Johanns for leaving the administration before work on the farm bill was complete. And Kleeb tried mightily to tie Johanns to Bush, by then unpopular in public opinion polls. Johanns responded by saying that he hadn’t been in Washington long enough to be defined by the administration he served. “I was in D.C. less time than Barack Obama has been,” Johanns was fond of saying on the campaign trail, contrasting himself to the first-term U.S. senator from Illinois then running for the Democratic presidential nomination. It turns out that Johanns’ affiliation with Bush hardly resonated in this red state. He won the election with 58%, a percentage point higher than John McCain earned in the state. Kleeb got 40% of the vote. The Democrat prevailed in just seven of 93 counties, including Lancaster County, which is home to Lincoln, the state capital. However, Johanns beat him in most rural counties and in Omaha in Douglas County. Johanns has never lost an election, including six general elections and six primaries.

Putting his Washington experience to use, Johanns quickly became one of the most admired freshmen among his Republican colleagues. He won passage of an amendment on the fiscal 2010 budget resolution preventing the use of the filibuster-proof reconciliation process to advance climate change legislation, something he said would endanger his state’s coal-powered agricultural economy. Johanns led the charge in pushing for repeal of the “1099” tax provision in the health care overhaul that imposed what small businesses complained was an unreasonable information burden upon them. Johanns efforts on the issue proved successful. In April 2011, the Senate voted to remove the 1099 reporting provision, 87-12. President Obama signed the bill into law later that month.

On that measure, as well as on other legislation, he showed that he could work with Democrats. He joined with Alaska Democrat Mark Begich to form a Senate Caucus on General Aviation, an important issue for rural states, that quickly grew to more than two dozen members. He also joined a majority of Democrats in December 2010 in ratifying the New START arms treaty with Russia. He employed a quiet but authoritative manner, often showing a willingness to listen to others. “He doesn’t just jump up and pound his views all the time,” Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said. But like other ex-governors, he found himself missing the decisiveness of being a chief executive. “You could wake up in the morning as governor and you could get things done,” Johanns said.

After Minority Whip Jon Kyl of Arizona announced he would not seek re-election in 2012, Johanns said he would run for Republican Conference chairman to replace Alexander, who was expected to seek the whip job. However, Alexander withdrew from the Republican leadership, and Sen. John Thune, R-S.D. stepped forward to run for the Conference chairmanship position that would open up in 2012. Johanns ultimately decided against a bid to be Conference chairman and supported Thune, who secured the post without opposition. Johanns also expressed interest in a position on the Senate Finance Committee that opened up when scandal-plagued Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev. resigned. But the coveted committee post was given to Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C.

In the 112th Congress, Johanns was heavily involved in the push to build a Keystone XL oil pipeline that would run from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Many Cornhusker State politicians have opposed the pipeline because it was expected to run through the Great Plains’ Ogallala Aquifer and the Sand Hills prairie in north-central Nebraska. In September 2011, Johanns joined with Gov. Dave Heineman, R-Neb. in calling on President Obama to recommend using an alternative route that does not run through Sand Hills. “It’s clear to me, after traveling through the state, that most Nebraskans agree a better route is needed,” Johanns said in a statement. But he was still a strong advocate for the XL pipeline, which Republicans have argued will create thousands of jobs. And Johanns insisted that finding an alternative route should not slow down construction of the project. After being handed a 60-day deadline in December 2011 to move on the pipeline, Obama rejected the permit and sought more time to find potential alternative routes.