Michael Owen Johanns (/ˈdʒoʊhæns/ 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.

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

[4] He 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.

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

[7] He 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.

The early start led to a slow, steady build-up in name recognition and organizational support, and an advantage of small donors over his Republican opponents, Nebraska State Auditor John Breslow and U.S. Representative Jon Lynn Christensen.

[15] Christensen (who saw backing from the Christian right), and Breslow ran their campaigns on a staunch social conservative message and were seen as trying to "outconservative" and outdistance one another, while Johanns was seen as an attractive candidate for moderate voters.

[16][17] Christensen was seen as the early frontrunner, though his lead fell dramatically in the final weeks after he made public comments that he signed an affidavit after he and his first wife divorced, saying that her adultery broke up their marriage.

[18] He also saw backlash from comments he made about his second wife (Tara Dawn Holland, Miss America 1997), that he got her to swear that she was a virgin who was "saving herself for marriage.

"[19][20] His campaign also vigorously attacked Johanns in a flier for allowing "obscene and racist" broadcasts to air on Lincoln's public access cable channel.

Bill Hoppner won the Democratic nomination, defeating lawyer and former member of the Nebraska Legislature Jim McFarland.

[26] Hoppner, an attorney who previously served as the chief of staff to senators J. James Exon and Bob Kerrey, had never won an election before; he had run for governor and was defeated by Nelson in the 1990 primary.

[31] 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.

[33] Johanns proposed another 20 cents increase in cigarette taxes, saying that "I don't think you're going to get much debate that medical costs are higher when you smoke.

[38][41] During the 1999 legislative session, the Nebraska Legislature passed a moratorium of executions in a 27 to 21 vote, becoming the first state in the nation to send such a proposal to the governor's desk.

In his announcement nominating Johanns as agriculture secretary, President Bush explained that he chose him to replace Veneman for his support of ethanol and biodiesel and for his knowledge in foreign trade; calling him "a man of action and of complete integrity.

He 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.

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

[69] Johanns and his wife divorced in 1985, and in 1986 he married Stephanie Armitage, a former Lancaster County Commissioner and Nebraska state senator.