Mike Johanns

Michael Owen Johanns (/ˈdʒoʊhæns/ JOH-hanss; born June 18, 1950) is an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from Nebraska from 2009 to 2015. He served as the 38th governor of Nebraska from 1999 until 2005, and was chair of the Midwestern Governors Association in 2002. In 2005, he was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as the secretary of agriculture, where he served from 2005 to 2007, becoming the fourth Nebraskan to hold that position.

Born in Osage, Iowa, Johanns is a graduate of Saint Mary's University of Minnesota and Creighton University School of Law. He began his career as an attorney working in private practice before clerking for the Nebraska Supreme Court. Elected to the Lancaster County Board as a Democrat in 1983, Johanns served there until 1987, and was elected to the Lincoln City Council in 1988. He was elected the 47th mayor of Lincoln in 1991 and reelected in 1995.

In Nebraska's 1998 gubernatorial election, Johanns defeated Democratic political aide Bill Hoppner, and in 2002 he was reelected over insurance executive Stormy Dean. In 2008, Johanns ran for the Republican nomination to replace retiring U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel. He won the primary, defeating businessman Pat Flynn, and the general election, defeating Democratic challenger Scott Kleeb. He was sworn in on January 3, 2009; along with Jim Risch of Idaho, he became only one of two new Republican senators sworn into the 111th United States Congress. On February 18, 2013, Johanns announced that he would not run for reelection to a second term in 2014, and was succeeded by fellow Republican Ben Sasse.

Johanns was born in Osage, Iowa, the son of Adeline Lucy (née Royek) and John Robert Johanns. His father was of German and some Luxembourgish ancestry, and his maternal grandparents immigrated from Poland. He grew up living and working on his family's farm.

He graduated from Osage Community High School in 1968 and went on to study at Saint Mary's University of Minnesota in Winona, where he received his Bachelor of Arts in Communications in 1971. Johanns earned his Juris Doctor from Creighton University School of Law, and joined the Nebraska State Bar Association in 1974.

After his graduation, he clerked for Nebraska Supreme Court Justice Hale McCown from 1974 to 1975, before practicing law for Cronin and Hannon in O'Neill, Nebraska, from 1975 to 1976. He was a partner at Nelson, Johanns, Morris, Holdeman, and Titus, a law firm he founded in Lincoln in 1976, where he practiced until 1991.

Johanns served on the Lancaster County Board from 1983 to 1987 as a Democrat. In 1988, he was elected as a Republican to the Lincoln City Council, where he served from 1989 to 1991. On May 7, 1991, he was elected the 47th mayor of Lincoln, defeating incumbent mayor Bill Harris with 54% of the vote. He took office as mayor on May 20, 1991. In 1995, Johanns won reelection with no opposition, becoming the first mayor of Lincoln to do so since the 1950s. After being elected governor of Nebraska, he was succeeded as mayor by Dale Young, who was appointed by the Lincoln City Council.

Johanns began campaigning early in Nebraska's 1998 gubernatorial election, holding his first campaign event in October 1995. The early start led to a slow, steady build-up in name recognition and organizational support, and an advantage of small donors over his Republican opponents, Nebraska State Auditor John Breslow and U.S. Representative Jon Lynn Christensen. Johanns visited all of Nebraska's 93 counties, traveling over 100,000 miles. Christensen, a two-term representative who promised not to serve more than three terms in the House, was seen as a surprise candidate in the gubernatorial election, as he had to give up his seat on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. Christensen (who saw backing from the Christian right), and Breslow ran their campaigns on a staunch social conservative message and were seen as trying to "outconservative" and outdistance one another, while Johanns was seen as an attractive candidate for moderate voters.