43 Facts About Mike Johanns

Michael Owen Johanns is an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from Nebraska from 2009 to 2015.

Mike Johanns served as the 38th governor of Nebraska from 1999 until 2005, and was chair of the Midwestern Governors Association in 2002.

Mike Johanns began his career as an attorney working in private practice before clerking for the Nebraska Supreme Court.

Mike Johanns was elected the 47th mayor of Lincoln in 1991 and reelected in 1995.

In Nebraska's 1998 gubernatorial election, Mike Johanns defeated Democratic political aide Bill Hoppner, and in 2002 he was reelected over insurance executive Stormy Dean.

In 2008, Mike Johanns ran for the Republican nomination to replace retiring US Senator Chuck Hagel.

Mike Johanns won the primary, defeating businessman Pat Flynn, and the general election, defeating Democratic challenger Scott Kleeb.

Mike Johanns 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, Mike Johanns announced that he would not run for reelection to a second term in 2014, and was succeeded by fellow Republican Ben Sasse.

Mike Johanns was born in Osage, Iowa, the son of Adeline Lucy and John Robert Mike Johanns.

Mike Johanns's father was of German and some Luxembourgish ancestry, and his maternal grandparents immigrated from Poland.

Mike Johanns grew up living and working on his family's farm.

Mike Johanns 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.

Mike Johanns earned his Juris Doctor from Creighton University School of Law, and joined the Nebraska State Bar Association in 1974.

Mike Johanns was a partner at Nelson, Johanns, Morris, Holdeman, and Titus, a law firm he founded in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1976, where he practiced until 1991.

Mike Johanns served on the Lancaster County Board from 1983 to 1987 as a Democrat.

In 1995, Mike Johanns won reelection with no opposition, becoming the first Mayor of Lincoln to do so since the 1950s.

Mike Johanns began campaigning early in Nebraska's 1998 gubernatorial election, holding his first campaign event in October 1995.

Mike Johanns visited all of Nebraska's 93 counties, traveling over 100,000 miles.

Christensen, and Breslow ran their campaigns on a staunch social conservative message and were seen as trying to "outconservative" and outdistance one another, while Mike Johanns was seen as an attractive candidate for moderate voters.

The broadcasts showed a man urinating in public; though Mike Johanns tried to stop the program, the airing was protected by a federal lawsuit.

The primary was seen as one of the most expensive in Nebraska history, with Breslow spending $3.8 million, Christensen spending $1.8 million and Mike Johanns spending $1.7 million.

Mike Johanns succeeded in enacting a total of $85 million in such relief.

Mike Johanns was a supporter of Initiative 413, amending Nebraska's constitution to limit state government spending, and adjusting tax revenue increases to the rate of inflation.

In 2002 Mike Johanns signed legislation raising the state's cigarette tax by 50 cents per pack; from 34 to 84 cents.

Mike Johanns led agriculture trade missions to Japan, China, Taiwan, Australia, South Korea and Brazil.

Mike Johanns signed legislation increasing state gasoline taxes by 1.25 cents for ethanol incentive funding, raising $1.5 million annually for Nebraska's Ethanol Production Incentive Cash Fund.

Mike Johanns served as the chairman of Governors' Ethanol Coalition in 2001.

Mike Johanns was known for his strong stance on vetoing bills.

In 1999 Mike Johanns vetoed 26 bills in only five days, more than any previous governor in Nebraska history.

In 2003 Mike Johanns vetoed the entire $5.4 billion two-year Nebraska state budget.

Mike Johanns vetoed legislation increasing the pay of members of the Nebraska Legislature, though the veto was overridden by the legislature; he vetoed legislation authorizing teacher salary increases.

In 1999, Mike Johanns saw criticism from the groups People For the American Way and the American Civil Liberties Union for signing a proclamation declaring May 22, "March for Jesus Day," in honor of a fundamentalist Christian group in Nebraska.

Mike Johanns was endorsing Christianity over all other religions, sending an impermissible message to Nebraskans of other faiths or of no faith that their beliefs are disfavored by the Government.

Mike Johanns twice served as the chair of the National Governors Association's Committee on Economic Development and Commerce from 2000 to 2001 and from 2002 to 2003.

Mike Johanns succeeded Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack as chair of the Midwestern Governors Association in 2002.

On December 2,2004, Johanns was nominated by President George W Bush to replace outgoing Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman.

Mike Johanns tendered his resignation as Governor of Nebraska on that day, and was sworn in the next day.

The Department of Agriculture under Mike Johanns received criticism for being too slow to perform additional tests on cows suspected of having mad cow disease.

On September 20,2007, Mike Johanns resigned as the Secretary of Agriculture and announced on October 10,2007 that he would run for the United States Senate seat vacated by Senator Chuck Hagel.

Mike Johanns was a member of the "Gang of Eight" that tried to negotiate a federal deficit reduction deal in 2011 and was pivotal in re-routing the proposed route of the Keystone Pipeline.

Mike Johanns received an award from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society for his work to support funding for autoimmune disease research.

In December 2015, President Barack Obama nominated Mike Johanns to be a member of the board of directors of the Millennium Challenge Corporation.