Ronald Harold Johnson (born April 8, 1955) is an American businessman and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Wisconsin, a seat he has held since 2011. A Republican, Johnson was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010, defeating Democratic incumbent Russ Feingold. Johnson defeated Feingold in a rematch in 2016, and defeated Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes in 2022. Before entering politics, he was chief executive officer of a plastics manufacturer in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
Johnson entered politics to oppose the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and credits the Tea Party movement with his political ascent, though he does not personally identify with the movement. As a freshman senator, he gained a reputation for opposing government spending and seeking a balanced budget, having stalled or voted against budget proposals from both major parties for not offsetting spending. He is also critical of the Social Security program and has called for its partial privatization. Johnson has promoted various political conspiracy theories, including the Biden–Ukraine conspiracy theory, connections between vaccines and autism, election denial, the Great Replacement conspiracy theory, and 9/11 conspiracy theories. He advocates the use of alternative medicine and sponsored a right-to-try law to legalize the use of experimental medical treatments. Johnson also supports stronger measures against crime and illegal immigration, expansion of free trade, rejection of the scientific consensus on climate change, and protection of the right to bear arms.
Starting in his second term, Johnson aligned himself with Donald Trump. As chair of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, he led investigations into Hillary Clinton, Hunter Biden, and officials involved in the FBI investigation of the Trump campaign. Johnson also worked on Ukraine–United States relations during his second term and saw Ukraine as an ally against Russia, but stopped supporting military aid for Ukraine after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 because he believed a Russian victory was inevitable. Due to his interactions with Ukrainian officials, Johnson was a major witness in the 2019 Trump–Ukraine scandal and the subsequent impeachment of Donald Trump, which he said was an attempt to sabotage Trump. In his third term, Johnson has focused on investigating corruption in federal agencies, which he alleges are working against the Trump administration.
Early life and business career Ronald Harold Johnson was born on April 8, 1955, in Mankato, Minnesota. He was the son of Jean Johnson, a film processor, and Dale Johnson, a treasurer who worked both corporately and for the church. He held several jobs in his youth, including as a newspaper delivery boy, a caddie, a hay baler on his uncle's farm, a dishwasher, the night manager of a restaurant, and at a school yearbook company. Johnson attended Edina High School but skipped his senior year and graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1977 with a bachelor's degree in business and accounting. He began working as an accountant while studying for a Master of Business Administration, but he ended his studies in 1979 to enter business.
Johnson moved to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where he worked as a machine operator and accountant to help establish the Pacur plastic company with his brother-in-law in 1979. He became Pacur's CEO in the mid-1980s when his brother-in-law left the company. The family sold Pacur to Bowater Industries for $18,000,000 () in 1987, but Johnson remained CEO. He purchased Pacur from Bowater in 1997 and remained CEO until he was elected to the Senate in 2010.
In October 2009, Michelle Litjens invited Johnson to speak at an Oshkosh rally associated with the Tea Party movement. He was asked to speak about his experiences as a businessman regarding government regulation but extended the scope of his speech to health care reform and his daughter's heart defect. The speech was well-received among conservatives and gained him political support. Afterward, he reached out to Litjens to help him launch a campaign for the Senate. Johnson's wife took convincing, saying "absolutely not" when he first raised the idea.
U.S. Senate 2010 Senate election
2010 Republican primary election Without previous political experience, Johnson announced his candidacy in the 2010 United States Senate election in Wisconsin a week before the May 15 Republican convention. He cited his opposition to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) as his reason for running, saying it was "the greatest assault on our freedom in my lifetime". Johnson first became known statewide with the assistance of conservative political commentator Charlie Sykes, who later opposed Johnson because of Johnson's support for Donald Trump. Since the Republican candidates entered the race late in the year, there was no time to seek donors, which made Johnson's personal wealth an advantage.
The other major Republican candidate for the Senate nomination, Wisconsin Secretary of Commerce Dick Leinenkugel, withdrew during the convention and gave a surprise endorsement to Johnson. Johnson also gained the support of Senator Jim DeMint, who held influence over the support received by Republican candidates. Johnson won the Republican primary in September with 85% of the vote, defeating Dave Westlake and Stephen Finn, who received 10% and 5%, respectively. Johnson's other opponent, Terrence Wall, dropped out of the race.
2010 general election
Wisconsin had long been a competitive state where both Democratic and Republican candidates were viable. The Democratic nominee in the general election, Russ Feingold, was the incumbent and had won his previous race by 11 points. Johnson's campaign was concerned about his debates against Feingold, an experienced public speaker, so they began practicing a month in advance in what Johnson called "murder sessions". Both candidates were seen as having performed well in the three debates. Feingold was the favorite to win early in the race, but polling fluctuated over the following months and was even in the days leading up to the election.
Johnson ran as a political outsider and small-business owner while criticizing Feingold as a Washington insider. His messaging emphasized fiscal responsibility, including job creation and reduction of the national debt. Johnson did not fully align with the Tea Party movement's strict reading of the Constitution, but his campaign had its backing and he was seen as a Tea Party candidate.
The main issue Johnson campaigned on was opposition to the Recovery Act and the ACA, both passed by the Obama administration. He launched his campaign by telling the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the United States "would have been far better off not spending any of the money and [letting] the recovery happen as it was going to happen". He rarely went into detail on other policies during the campaign. He declined to say how he would reduce the federal budget if elected, saying he was not going to "start naming things to be attacked about".
Johnson took controversial positions on several issues. He vocally denied the scientific consensus on climate change, and his endorsement of the oil industry was scrutinized after it was discovered he owned $100,000 of stock in BP. He walked back statements in which he said he supported firearms licenses and supported drilling for oil in the Great Lakes, describing himself as a political novice who misspoke. After these gaffes, the campaign avoided frequent public appearances.
The campaign ran a series of TV commercials, including ads in which Johnson's children praised him, he called the national debt "inter-generational theft", and he criticized the Senate for lacking manufacturers or accountants while having 57 members who were lawyers. From September 1 to the end of the campaign, Johnson ran more ads than any other Senate candidate nationwide, with Feingold running the second-most. In January 2010, Citizens United v. FEC overturned limits on how much organizations may spend on political campaigns, and nearly all the race's outside funds were in support of Johnson. His campaign spent about $15 million, including $8.7 million of his own money.
2010 results and transition period Johnson was elected to the Senate with 51.9% of the vote to Feingold's 47.0%. The 2010 elections were favorable to the Republican Party, which saw victories across the nation and especially in Wisconsin. Candidates without previous political experience, such as Johnson, also did particularly well in 2010.
After Johnson was elected, Johnson sold the majority of his liquid assets, retaining a 401(k) account and a 5% share of Pacur that he held until 2020. He also continued receiving payments from the company. He chose not to create a blind trust, saying it would not help because his family would still have ownership. Pacur paid Johnson $10 million in deferred compensation in the months after the election, which covered the period from 1997 to 2011, during which he took no salary as CEO. He disputed allegations that the compensation was related to the contributions he had made to his campaign.
First term (2011–2017)
Upon entering the Senate, Johnson was appointed to the Committee on the Budget and Committee on Appropriations. He sought the position of vice chairman of the Senate Republican Conference in December 2011, but Roy Blunt was selected with 25 votes to Johnson's 22 votes. In Johnson's first term, he was mainly identified with his focus on federal spending and the national debt. He involved himself in fiscal issues and quickly became an influential member of the Senate in this area.
Johnson stepped down from the Committee on Appropriations in 2013 because he objected to the other committee members' permissiveness about spending, and joined the Committee on Foreign Relations. He used his position on the committee to investigate overuse of painkillers by the Department of Veterans Affairs and facilitate passage of the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System Act of 2015, which updated the warning system of the same name. In 2014, President Barack Obama unexpectedly appointed Johnson as a representative to a session of the United Nations General Assembly despite Johnson's opposition to both Obama and the United Nations. The same year, Johnson advocated greater international action against Ebola during the Western African Ebola epidemic.
Through Johnson's position on the Committee of Foreign Relations, he participated in the investigation into the 2012 Benghazi attack and was one of the most prominent critics of how Secretary of State Hillary Clinton handled it. An argument between Johnson and Clinton during a hearing became the basis for Republican attack ads against Clinton, though Johnson caused backlash for accusing her of faking her emotional state.
In 2014, Johnson sued the United States Office of Personnel Management to challenge the subsidies that the ACA gave members of Congress and their staff. His lawsuit alleged that it inflicted him with administrative burden, that it gave him an unfair benefit over his constituents, and that it was "an unlawful scheme". The case was dismissed when Judge William C. Griesbach found that Johnson lacked standing because no injury took place.
In 2016, Johnson rejected Republican presidential nominee Trump's allegations that the upcoming election would be rigged.
2016 Senate election