About Mike Johanns
Michael Owen Johanns ( 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. 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. In 1995, Johanns won reelection with no opposition, becoming the first mayor of Lincoln to do so since the 1950s. Johanns began campaigning early in Nebraska's 1998 gubernatorial election, holding his first campaign event in October 1995.
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