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.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Johnson voted for the CARES Act, resisted stay at home orders, used his chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security Committee to invite witnesses who promoted fringe theories about COVID-19 and spread misinformation about COVID-19 vaccinations.

[3] He attended Edina High School but skipped his senior year[4] and graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1977 with a bachelor's degree in business and accounting.

"[7] In dismissing the effects of climate change, Johnson falsely claimed that Greenland was green when it was discovered and had become white and snow-clad over time as a result of cooling temperatures.

[43] In January 2013, Johnson voted for the fiscal cliff agreement that reduced pending tax increases and delayed spending cuts precipitated by the 2011 debt ceiling deal.

[58] That month, Johnson joined 45 other senators in defeating the Manchin-Toomey Amendment, which would have required background checks on all sales of guns, including between individuals.

[68][69] In an August 2017 interview, Johnson said of Senator John McCain's "thumbs-down" vote that killed the Republican bill to repeal the ACA, "He has a brain tumor right now.

[73] In 2021, Johnson also supported a request for the Supreme Court to uphold a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks, with exceptions for "severe fetal abnormality" or medical emergency, but none for rape and incest.

[74] He supported Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, calling it a "victory for life.

[77] In an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Johnson said he was aware "what a nasty disease COVID-19 can be, and how it's obviously devastating to somewhere between 1 and 3.4 percent of the population... [b]ut we don't shut down our economy because tens of thousands of people die on the highways.

[80] Johnson called pulmonologist Pierre Kory[81] to testify about his experiences with Ivermectin, as well as a medical doctor who "has cast doubts on coronavirus vaccines and has pushed for the use of hydroxychloroquine", and a cardiologist (Ramin Oskoui) who disagrees with "settled science".

[90] In an October 2021 interview on Tucker Carlson Tonight, Johnson falsely claimed that ivermectin was being suppressed as a COVID-19 treatment in favor of expensive COVID-19 drugs developed by the pharmaceutical industry, and that "the Pfizer vaccine available in the U.S. is not FDA-approved" because it was not the "Comirnaty version".

[92][93] In September 2024, Johnson wrote a letter to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration calling on them to review the 1-year and 2-year mortality rates for those who got a second dose of the Spikevax and Comirnaty vaccines in 2021.

[96] On conservative media broadcasts, Johnson repeatedly referred to the supposed "Democrat grand plan," endorsing the theory, saying, "I've got to believe they want to change the makeup of the electorate.

[99] In March 2015, Johnson voted for an amendment to establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund to allow all employees in the country to earn paid sick time.

[108][106] In June 2010 he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "I can't think of a penalty that would be too harsh for these guys",[108] and in late September 2010 said that the legislation would have financially crippled organizations such as the Boys & Girls Clubs and that the punishment for child sexual abuse should be "severe and swift.

[113] As chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Johnson launched multiple investigations into Trump's political opponents, including Joe Biden.

[116] In February 2018, Johnson further suggested that a text message between Strzok and Page raised questions about "the type and extent of President Obama's personal involvement" in the investigation into Hillary Clinton's email server.

[124] In February 2016, he was one of eight senators who signed a letter to then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko urging reforms in the office of the Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin.

[125] On October 3, 2019, Johnson told reporters he did not recall signing the letter, which contradicts Trump's allegations that Biden had improperly pushed for Shokin's removal.

[127] Johnson has been one of the few Republican senators to defend Trump's efforts to get Ukraine and China to investigate Biden (then a potential 2020 Democratic presidential candidate) and his son.

[128] Sondland told the House Intelligence Committee, "I shared concerns of the potential quid pro quo regarding the security aid with Senator Ron Johnson.

He said he was disturbed by any linkage of the actions or the existence of a quid pro quo but became satisfied after Trump personally denied to him that the release was tied to political investigations.

On November 26, however, the New York Times reported that Trump had been briefed about a whistleblower complaint involving a quid pro quo before releasing the withheld military aid to Ukraine.

[142] The Washington Post wrote, "Johnson's letter intensified a campaign of attacks on Vindman from Trump and his allies, which has included speculation about the decorated war veteran's patriotism from conservative commentators and a White House statement on Friday criticizing his job performance.

[144] After Trump fired State Department Inspector General Steve Linick and replaced him with an ally, Johnson said, "I'm not crying big crocodile tears over this termination.

[79] While ballots were counted during the 2020 election, he said that half the country would not accept a Biden win, and made unsubstantiated claims of "voter fraud that the mainstream media and, unfortunately, many officials just simply ignore.

[148][149][150] After doing so, Johnson, as chairman of the Homeland Security committee, argued "that there was some unknown incidence of fraud, but it hadn't been shown to have occurred on a scale that would have changed the outcome".

[152] Regardless, the day after the count was interrupted by the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel called for Johnson, as well as other members of the so-called "Sedition Caucus", such as Representatives Scott Fitzgerald and Tom Tiffany, to resign or be expelled from Congress.

A spokesperson for Johnson said, "the revelation of the depth of the FBI's involvement in the Governor Whitmer plot raises questions as to whether it had infiltrated January 6 agitator groups as well".