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 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. 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 Affordable Care Act, 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 his 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. In the campaign's final two months, 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 United States 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 he 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 his first term, Johnson 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 The same year, Johnson advocated greater international action against
Ebola during the
Western African Ebola epidemic. In 2014, Johnson sued the
United States Office of Personnel Management to challenge the subsidies that the Affordable Care Act 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 Donald Trump's allegations that the upcoming election would be rigged. In November 2014, he said he would not self-finance his campaign. He ran unopposed in the Republican primary election. The Democrats nominated Feingold again, leading to a rematch of the 2010 election. Feingold led in polling until the weeks leading up to the election and was widely expected to win, and in December 2014, the
Washington Post rated Johnson the most vulnerable incumbent U.S. senator in the 2016 election cycle. Johnson had low name recognition for an incumbent seeking reelection, with 23% of Wisconsin voters having no opinion of him. Johnson hired his brother Dean Johnson, a television producer, to assist in his campaign. The campaign's TV ads showed Johnson facilitating a couple's adoption of a child from the
Democratic Republic of the Congo and changing his grandson's diaper as the infant urinated on him. Senate Republicans cut off support to Johnson, believing the campaign was not viable enough to justify the cost, so he turned to the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives and worked with Speaker Paul Ryan. To improve Johnson's chances, Ryan expressed willingness to campaign with Republican presidential nominee
Donald Trump despite their animosity toward each other. Ryan was turned down. Johnson personally avoided tying himself to Trump until Trump's support in Wisconsin became apparent. Johnson made his support for
small government a key element of his campaign and used a
get out the vote approach to gain voters. He returned to his 2010 campaign strategy of presenting himself as a businessman and a political outsider while portraying Feingold as a career politician. He argued that Feingold was a hypocrite for accepting campaign funds from outside Wisconsin despite advocating campaign finance reform. The
Supreme Court nomination of
Merrick Garland was pending in 2016, and Johnson campaigned on confirming a more conservative nominee who would uphold the
right to bear arms. In contrast with his previous campaign, Johnson did not campaign on repealing the Affordable Care Act. Johnson was reelected with 50.2% of the vote to Feingold's 46.8%. He performed especially well with rural, white, male voters without college degrees, and his performance in the Minneapolis suburbs meant that he outperformed
Trump's campaign in Wisconsin.
Second term (2017–2023) Johnson's politics became more right-wing during his second term and he expressed support for various
political conspiracy theories. He was a close ally of the
Trump administration, though he disagreed with the administration on economic issues because of its willingness to increase government spending. Johnson initially opposed the
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017, feeling it was too generous to larger corporations and did too little for small businesses, and he objected to how the bill would affect companies using a
pass-through model, but he was successful in getting a 20% deduction in taxation for pass-through businesses. When accused of benefiting from the tax breaks, he said it benefited him because tax breaks benefit everyone. He pressed the issue even after many in his party had abandoned it. He had some Republican support, but critics from both parties accused him of using the issue to spread
Russian disinformation and gain support for Trump's reelection. Johnson himself was among the most prominent targets of ethics investigations by the Democratic Party. Johnson criticized Senate Republicans for prioritizing their political careers over enacting conservative policy and pushed them to take stronger positions, especially on repealing the Affordable Care Act. Republicans negotiated with Johnson to gain his support for a more limited rollback of the policy, including an argument between Johnson and Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell on the Senate floor. Johnson eventually agreed, but the bill was unsuccessful. Johnson's approval rating in Wisconsin began falling in 2019. In 2021, during the
Biden administration Johnson delayed passage of the
American Rescue Plan Act. He forced a reading of all 628 pages of the bill on the grounds that the Senate had not had enough time to read it. The same year, he voted against funding highways and transit programs through the
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and called the
trial of Derek Chauvin for the
murder of George Floyd a distraction from immigration issues. Johnson voted to confirm
Neil Gorsuch,
Brett Kavanaugh, and
Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court and voted against the confirmation of
Ketanji Brown Jackson. In 2022, he blocked a Biden administration nominee,
William Pocan, from serving as a federal district court judge in Wisconsin despite previously endorsing him.
Trump–Russia investigations In January 2018, Johnson said an informant had told him that the
FBI and
Department of Justice had conspired against Trump after he won the 2016 presidential election. The FBI contacted Johnson in August 2020 to warn him that the Russian government might use him to spread disinformation. Johnson said they could not provide any details and accused them of organizing the briefing so it could be leaked to make him look bad.
First impeachment of Donald Trump in 2019 In 2019, Trump
was impeached over allegations that he had frozen aid to Ukraine to pressure the Ukrainian government to announce investigations into
whether Ukraine had interfered in
the 2016 presidential election and whether
Joe Biden had interfered in an investigation involving his son, although the claims had already been found to be false. Johnson was heavily involved with
Ukraine–United States relations due to his positions as vice chair of the Senate Ukraine Caucus and chair of the Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Europe and Regional Security. Johnson ultimately voted against having witnesses testify at all. Johnson voted to acquit Trump because the impeachment resolution did not accuse him of a crime. He dismissed the
United States Government Accountability Office's decision that Trump broke the law, saying its findings were a political dispute between the executive and legislative branches of government. He expressed support for the
COVID-19 vaccine but said its importance was overstated. He
spread false claims about potential dangers of the vaccine, citing user-submitted reports of the
Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System to say thousands of people had been killed by the COVID-19 vaccine despite the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finding evidence that only three deaths might have been caused by the vaccine out of 245 million doses; Johnson's communications advisor later walked back the claim. and a provision in
the 2022 defense bill that mandated the discharge of servicemen if they did not receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Johnson accused the media of hiding alternative treatments to COVID-19 such as
hydroxychloroquine and
ivermectin, which were found to be ineffective. He brought several witnesses before the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs to testify against the medical consensus, including
Jane Orient, who disputed the vaccine's efficacy, and Ramin Oskoui, who falsely said that
face masks,
quarantining, and
social distancing are ineffective in reducing spread of the virus. He was also critical of preventative measures like
lockdowns and
face masks, encouraging caution in imposing limitations that could affect
essential functions while acknowledging that distancing measures were important in
flattening the curve. Johnson opposed the spending increases implemented during the pandemic, He opposed extending the pandemic's higher unemployment benefits in 2021 out of concern that it would create a
perverse incentive to keep people from working. After Biden won, Johnson planned on objecting to the electoral results. He ultimately certified the results after Trump supporters
attacked the
Capitol Building during the election certification on January 6, 2021. He accused the FBI of knowing about the attack before it occurred and claimed without evidence that it had been provoked as a
false flag attack. Although police radio confirmed that people were armed, Johnson argued that it was not an "armed insurrection" because no weapons were seized. Despite voting to certify the election, Johnson continued to spread disproved claims about widespread election fraud and
sought investigation into the allegations, saying there was "voter fraud that the mainstream media and, unfortunately, many officials just simply ignore" and that Democrats had "gamed the system" in Wisconsin. Of his investigations, he said his intention was to investigate irregularities and not to
overturn the election.
Andrew Hitt, the chair of the Republican Party of Wisconsin in 2021, testified to Congress that Johnson had suggested submitting electoral votes for Trump despite Biden's victory in Wisconsin. Johnson defended his involvement as limited to only a few seconds when he introduced his staff to one of Trump's lawyers. The House
January 6th Committee revealed that Johnson's aide Sean Riley texted Chris Hodgson, an aide to Vice President
Mike Pence, to request that Johnson personally give Pence an envelope containing fraudulent
alternate electors for Michigan and Wisconsin. Hodgson refused. In 2023, the FBI collected phone records of Johnson and eight other Republicans documenting the times and recipients of their calls on January 4–7, 2021,
to investigate their involvement in
the plot to submit fake electors and overturn Biden's victory. Johnson decried this as inappropriate surveillance by the
Biden administration. In 2024, Johnson was one of 18 senators who voted against a third budget extension to prevent a government shutdown because he wanted to avoid indefinite extensions without passing a full budget. Leading up to the
2024 presidential election, Johnson was unwilling to say he would accept the result, saying he wanted to but would "have to see exactly what happens". He also used his position as chair of the
Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations to open investigations based on
9/11 conspiracy theories. Johnson was one of the strongest supporters of
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s nomination as
Secretary of Health and Human Services, and expressed interested in working with Kennedy on reevaluating the use of vaccines and investigating
processed food. He voted for the bill after Trump assured him that spending would be reduced. Johnson supported the raids led by
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during Trump's second administration. Johnson argued that
killings during immigration operations by ICE should be investigated but that opposition was overstated because most operations were conducted properly, In 2025, Johnson said he did not want to run for reelection in 2028 but had yet to make a final decision.
Committee assignments As of the
119th United States Congress, Johnson has served on the following committees. •
United States Senate Committee on Appropriations (112th Congress) •
Committee on the Budget (112th–119th Congress) •
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (112th–119th Congress; chairman during 114th–116th Congress) •
Special Committee on Aging (112th and 119th Congress) •
United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs (113th Congress) •
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation (113th–117th Congress) •
Committee on Foreign Relations (113th–117th Congress) •
Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship (113th Congress) •
Committee on Finance (119th Congress) ==Political positions==