John Loren Harmer (April 28, 1934 – December 6, 2019) was an American politician who served in the California State Senate as a Republican from 1966 to 1974.

While there, Harmer was part of the Frosh Handbook committee in 1954, that helped inform new freshmen about college life at the university.

[11] Before his election as a state senator, Harmer was also the director of public affairs with the National Association of Manufactures; he also worked for the Americans for Constitutional Action as a field representative.

[2] He was first elected to the Senate for a two-year term in 1966, following a U.S. Supreme Court decision requiring states to reapportion the upper houses of their legislatures on the basis of population.

During his time in the Senate, Harmer co-authored SB 462, the Therapeutic Abortion Act, along with Anthony Beilenson, Alan Short, and Lewis F. Sherman.

This act permitted a physician or surgeon to perform an abortion in cases of rape or incest, or when doctors determined that the pregnancy "would gravely impair the physical or mental health" of the mother.

[12] Harmer ran for state attorney general in 1970 and lost the primary; during that campaign, he sought permission to film a Los Angeles production of Oh!

The incumbent, Republican Ed Reinecke, had run for governor instead of seeking re-election, but lost the gubernatorial primary after he was indicted for perjury in a Watergate scandal-related matter.

After just three months since his appointment, the term ended and Harmer left the lieutenant governor's office on January 6, 1975.

In 1988, he was appointed chairman of Eyring, Inc.[12] In 1999, Harmer traveled to Moscow, Russia as an attorney and was briefed in the U.S. Embassy on the Soviet Union's plans to use germ warfare against the U.S. in the 1970s and 1980s.

[17] Harmer authored several books including We Dare Not Fail (1968), Among the Living Are the Dead (1970), and The Sex Industrial Complex (2007).