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Governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003

Gary Earl Johnson (born January 1, 1953) is an American businessman and politician who served as the 29th governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003 as a member of the Republican Party. He has been a member of the Libertarian Party since 2011 and was the party's nominee for President of the United States in the 2012 and 2016 elections. He was also the Libertarian nominee in the 2018 U. S. Senate election in New Mexico. Johnson entered politics for the first time by running for governor of New Mexico in 1994 on a low tax, anti crime platform, promising a "common sense business approach". He defeated incumbent Democratic governor Bruce King, 50% to 40%. He cut the 10% annual growth in the budget, in part by using the gubernatorial veto 200 times during his first six months. He was unable to convince the state senate to pass any of his motions. Johnson sought reelection in 1998, winning by 55% to 45%. In his second term, he concentrated on the issue of school voucher reforms as well as campaigning for cannabis decriminalization. During his tenure as governor, Johnson adhered to an anti tax policy, setting state and national records for the number of times he used his veto power: Term limited, Johnson retired from front line politics in 2003. Johnson ran for president in 2012, initially as a Republican on a libertarian platform emphasizing the United States public debt and a balanced budget, protection of civil liberties, military non interventionism, replacement of income tax with the FairTax, and opposition to the War on Drugs. winning the nomination in May 2012. Johnson received 1.3 million votes (1%), more than all other minor candidates combined. Johnson ran again for President in 2016, once again winning the Libertarian nomination. He named former Republican governor of Massachusetts Bill Weld as his running mate. Johnson received nearly 4.5 million votes (3.3% of the total vote), which is the most for a third party presidential candidate since 1996 and the highest national vote share for a Libertarian candidate in history. After the 2016 presidential election, Johnson said he would not run for president again. He ran for the U. S. Senate as a Libertarian in the 2018 New Mexico senate race against incumbent Democratic senator Martin Heinrich, coming in third with 15.4% of the statewide vote (107,201 votes). Johnson has since maintained a low profile and has had little involvement in politics.

Johnson was born on January 1, 1953, in Minot, North Dakota, the son of Lorraine B. (née Bostow), who worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and Earl W. Johnson, a public school teacher and World War II Army veteran who participated in the Invasion of Normandy and fought at the Battle of Bastogne, earning three Purple Hearts during his service in the 101st Airborne Division. In 1971, Johnson graduated from Sandia High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he was on the school track team. He attended the University of New Mexico from 1971 to 1975 and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in political science. While at UNM, he joined the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. It was there that he met his future wife, Denise "Dee" Simms. While in college, Johnson earned money as a door to door handyman. His success in that industry encouraged him to start his own business, Big J Enterprises, in 1976. When he started the business, which focused on mechanical contracting, Johnson was its only employee. To cope with the growth of the company, Johnson enrolled in a time management course at night school, which he credits with making him heavily goal driven. By the time he sold the company in 1999, it was one of New Mexico's leading construction companies.

Johnson entered politics in 1994 with the intention of running for governor and was advised by "Republican Elders" Johnson's campaign slogan was "People before Politics". His platform emphasized tax cuts, job creation, state government spending growth restraint, and law and order. As governor, Johnson followed a strict small government approach. According to former New Mexico Republican National Committee member Mickey D. Barnett, "Any time someone approached him about legislation for some purpose, his first response always was to ask if government should be involved in that to begin with." During the November 1995 federal government shutdown, he joined 20 other Republican governors who called on the Republican leadership in Congress to stand firm against the Clinton administration in budget negotiations; in the article reporting on the letter and concomitant news conference he was quoted as calling for eliminating the budget deficit through proportional cuts across the budget. Although Johnson worked to reduce overall state spending, in his first term he raised education spending by nearly a third. When drop out rates and test scores showed little improvement, Johnson changed his tactics and began advocating school vouchersa key issue in budget battles of his second term as governor. Fielding a strong Hispanic candidate in a 40% Hispanic state, the Democrats were expected to oust Johnson, This made him the first governor of New Mexico to serve two successive four year terms after term limits were expanded to two terms in 1991. In 1999, he proposed the first statewide voucher system in America, which would have enrolled 100,000 students in its first year. In 1999, Johnson became one of the highest ranking elected officials in the US to advocate the legalization of marijuana. Saying the War on Drugs was "an expensive bust", he advocated the decriminalization of marijuana use and concentration on harm reduction measures for all other illegal drugs. as well as the Cato Institute and Rolling Stone. In 2000, Johnson proposed a more ambitious voucher program than he had proposed the year before, under which each parent would receive $3,500 per child for education at any private or parochial school. Negotiations between the governor and the legislature were contentious, again nearly leading to a government shutdown. In 2000, New Mexico was devastated by the Cerro Grande Fire. Johnson's handling of the disaster earned him accolades from The Denver Post, which observed that:
Johnson was all over the Cerro Grande Fire last week. He helped reporters understand where the fire was headed when low level Forest Service officials couldn't, ran herd over the bureaucratic process of getting state and federal agencies and the National Guard involved, and even helped put out some of the fire with his feet. On a tour of Los Alamos last Wednesday, when he saw small flames spreading across a lawn, he had his driver stop his car. He jumped out and stomped on the flames, as did his wife and some of his staffers. Johnson's leadership during the fire was praised by Democratic Congressman Tom Udall, who said: "I think the real test of leadership is when you have circumstances like this. He's called on his reserves of energy and has just been a really excellent leader under very difficult circumstances here."

According to anonymous sources, Governor Johnson was known for a lack of interest in policy details and those who worked with Johnson at the time "recall a chief executive who would speed through meetings and often preferred to discuss his fitness routine than focus on the minutiae of policymaking." In an interview in Reason in January 2001, Johnson's accomplishments in office were described as follows: "no tax increases in six years, a major road building program, shifting Medicaid to managed care, constructing two new private prisons, canning 1,200 state employees, and vetoing a record number of bills." The Washington Times reported that when Johnson left office, "the size of state government had been substantially reduced and New Mexico was enjoying a large budget surplus." In a 2016 National Review article, Johnson was criticized for claiming to have balanced New Mexico's budget every year. The Constitution of New Mexico requires that the state budget be balanced, with its debt in a separate "capital outlay" budget. According to the Myrtle Beach Sun News, Johnson "said his numerous vetoes, only two of which were overridden, stemmed from his philosophy of looking at all things for their cost–benefit ratio and his axe fell on Republicans as well as Democrats." While in office, Johnson was criticized for opposing funding for an independent study of private prisons after a series of riots and killings at the facilities. Martin Chavez, his opponent in the 1998 New Mexico gubernatorial race, criticized Johnson for his frequent vetoing of programs, suggesting that it resulted in New Mexico's low economic and social standing nationally.

Johnson was term limited and could not run for a third consecutive term as governor in 2002. In the 2008 presidential election campaign, Johnson endorsed Ron Paul for the Republican nomination, "because of his commitment to less government, greater liberty, and lasting prosperity for America." Johnson spoke at Paul's "Rally for the Republic" on September 2, 2008. Johnson serves on the Advisory Council of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, a student nonprofit organization which advocates for drug policy reform. as of 2011, he serves on the board of directors of Students For Liberty, a nonprofit libertarian organization. His first book, Seven Principles of Good Government, was published on August 1, 2012.

In 2009, Johnson began indicating interest in running for president in the 2012 election. In the April 20, 2009, edition of The American Conservative magazine, Bill Kauffman told readers to "keep an eye out" for a Johnson presidential campaign in 2012, reporting that Johnson had told him that "he was keeping his options open for 2012" and that "he may take a shot at the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 as an antiwar, anti Fed, pro personal liberties, slash government spending candidatein other words, a Ron Paul libertarian". In an October 26, 2009, interview with the Santa Fe New Mexican's Steve Terrell, Johnson announced his decision to form an advocacy committee called the Our America Initiative to help him raise funds and promote small government ideas. In December 2009, Johnson asked strategist Ron Nielson of NSON Opinion Strategy, who has worked with Johnson since 1993 when he ran his successful gubernatorial campaign, to organize the Our American Initiative as a 501(c)(4) committee. Nielson serves as a senior advisor to Our America Initiative. The stated focus of the organization is to "speak out on issues regarding topics such as government efficiency, lowering taxes, ending the war on drugs, protecting civil liberties, revitalizing the economy and promoting entrepreneurship and privatization". The move prompted speculation among media pundits and Johnson's supporters that he might be laying the groundwork for a 2012 presidential run. Throughout 2010, Johnson repeatedly deflected questions about a 2012 presidential bid by saying his 501(c)(4) status prevented him from expressing a desire to run for federal office on politics. In February 2010, Johnson was a featured speaker at both the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and the Republican Liberty Caucus. At CPAC, "the crowd liked himeven as he pushed some of his more controversial points." Johnson tied with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie for third in the CPAC Straw Poll, trailing only Ron Paul and Mitt Romney (and ahead of such notables as former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels and former Alaska Governor and 2008 vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin). David Weigel of Slate called Johnson the second biggest winner of the conference, writing that his "third place showing in the straw poll gave Johnson his first real media hook  He met tons of reporters, commanded a small scrum after the vote, and is a slightly lighter shade of dark horse now."

On April 21, 2011, Johnson announced via Twitter, "I am running for president." He followed this announcement with a speech at the New Hampshire State House in Concord, New Hampshire. He was the first of an eventually large field to announce his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination. Johnson again chose Ron Nielson of NSON Opinion Strategy, a director for both of his New Mexico gubernatorial campaigns, as his presidential campaign manager and senior advisor. Initially, Johnson hoped Ron Paul would not run for president so that Johnson could galvanize Paul's network of libertarian minded voters, and he even traveled to Houston to tell Paul of his decision to run in person, The first exclusion, which was widely publicized, gave Johnson "a little bump" in name recognition and produced "a small uptick" in donations. Entertainment Weekly opined that Johnson had won the debate.

Although Johnson had focused the majority of his campaign activities on the New Hampshire primary, he announced on November 29, 2011, that he would no longer campaign there due to his inability to gain traction with less than a month until the primary. There was speculation in the media that he might run as a Libertarian Party candidate instead. Johnson acknowledged that he was considering such a move. In December, Politico reported that Johnson would quit the Republican primaries and announce his intention to seek the Libertarian Party nomination at a December 28 press conference. He also encouraged his supporters to vote for Ron Paul in 2012 Republican presidential primaries. On December 28, 2011, Johnson formally withdrew his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination, and declared his candidacy for the 2012 presidential nomination of the Libertarian Party in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In his acceptance speech, Johnson asked the convention's delegates to nominate as his running mate Judge Jim Gray of California. Gray subsequently received the party's vice presidential nomination on the first ballot. and Red Eye w/Greg Gutfeld. Starting in September 2012, Johnson embarked on a three week tour of college campuses throughout the US. On October 23, 2012, Gary Johnson participated in a third party debate that was aired on C SPAN, RT America, and Al Jazeera English. A post debate online election allowed people to choose two candidates from the debate they thought had won to face each other head to head in a run off debate. Gary Johnson and Jill Stein won the poll. Johnson stated that his goal was to win at least 5 percent of the vote, as winning 5 percent would allow Libertarian Party candidates equal ballot access and federal funding during the next election cycle. In a national Gallup poll of likely registered voters conducted June 7 through June 10, 2012, Johnson took 3% of the vote, while a Gallup poll conducted September 6 through September 9, 2012, showed Johnson taking 1% of likely voters. The final results showed Johnson received 1% of the popular vote, a total of 1,275,971 votes. This was the best result in the Libertarian Party's history by raw vote number, though under the 1.1 percentage of the vote won by Ed Clark in 1980. Despite falling short of his stated goal of 5%, Johnson stated, "Ours is a mission accomplished." In regards to a future presidential bid, he said "it is too soon to be talking about 2016". In a Google Hangout hosted by Johnson in June 2013, he criticized the US government's lack of transparency and due process in regards to the NSA's domestic surveillance programs. He also said that he would not rule out running as a Republican again in the future.

In December 2013, Johnson announced the founding of his own Super PAC, Our America Initiative PAC. The Super PAC is intended to support libertarian minded causes. "From the realities of government run healthcare setting in to the continuing disclosures of the breadth of NSA's domestic spying, more Americans than ever are ready to take a serious look at candidates who offer real alternatives to business as usual," the release announcing the PAC said.

In July 2014, Johnson was named president and CEO of Cannabis Sativa Inc., a Nevada based company that aims primarily to sell medical cannabis products in states where medicinal and/or recreational cannabis is legal.

In 2020, Johnson joined the Libertarians for National Popular Vote's advisory board.

In an April 2014 "Ask Me Anything" session on Reddit, Johnson stated that he hoped to run for president again in 2016. On whether he would run as a Libertarian or a Republican, he stated: "I would love running as a Libertarian because I would have the least amount of explaining to do." In July 2015, Johnson reiterated his intentions for a presidential campaign but stated he was not announcing anything imminently: "I just think there are more downsides than upsides to announcing at this point, and, look, I don't have any delusions about the process. In retrospect, 90 percent of the time I spent [trying to become president] ended up to be wasted time." In January 2016, Johnson resigned from his post as CEO of Cannabis Sativa, Inc., to pursue political opportunities, hinting to a 2016 presidential run. On May 29, 2016, Johnson received the Libertarian nomination on the second ballot. On September 8, Johnson appeared on MSNBC's Morning Joe and was asked by panelist Mike Barnicle, "As president, what would you do about Aleppo?" Johnson responded, "And what is Aleppo?" After a clarification from Barnicle, Johnson answered by saying that "the only way that we deal with Syria is to join hands with Russia to diplomatically bring that at an end." Johnson criticized U. S. support for the Free Syrian Army and Kurdish forces and stated that the "mess" in Syria was "the result of regime change that we end up supporting. And, inevitably, these regime changes have led to a less safe world." In response to charges that he was uninformed, Johnson said that he had "blanked," that he did "understand the dynamics of the Syrian conflict," and that he had thought that Barnicle's reference to "Aleppo" was in relation to "an acronym, not the Syrian conflict." On September 28, in a MSNBC Town Hall, Johnson was asked by Chris Matthews to name a world leader he respected, he tried to name Vicente Fox, a former President of Mexico, but could not remember his name. The following day, he tweeted, "It's been almost 24 hours and I still can't come up with a foreign leader I look up to." Later in a CNN interview, he expanded upon his reluctance to endorse political leaders, "I held a lot of people in this country on pedestals and then I get to meet them up front and personal and I find out that they're all about getting reelected, that they're not about issues, a lot of empty suits that I held up on pedestals." When asked on October 5 by The New York Times if he knew the name of the leader of North Korea, Johnson said "yes," but declined to give the name despite being pressed. Johnson was not invited to participate in the presidential debates because he did not meet the criterion of 15% support in five polls set by the Commission on Presidential Debates. In 2015, Johnson and Green Party nominee Jill Stein filed a lawsuit against the commission, arguing that the commission and its rules violated antitrust law and the First Amendment. In August 2016, the lawsuit was dismissed. Johnson's poll numbers had been averaging between 7 and 9 percent. Johnson's campaign manager Ron Nielson argued for Johnson's inclusion, citing Ross Perot's admission to the debates in the 1992 debates, when Perot was polling at 8 percent. A Washington Post SurveyMonkey 50 state poll, conducted online between August 9 and September 1 found Gary Johnson polling at 10% or higher in 42 states, and at 15% or higher in 15 states (Johnson received 25% in his home state of New Mexico and 23% in Utah). Another poll conducted in mid August by the Pew Research Center found Johnson supported by about 10% of registered voters. Of Johnson supporters, more than 60% identified as independent and more than 70% were younger than fifty years old. Johnson's supporters were evenly divided between men and women. After the election, Johnson stated in an interview with the Albuquerque Journal that he does not intend to run for public office again, saying, "Maybe I stay politically active, but not as a candidate. I will leave that to others." In August 2018, Johnson formally accepted the Libertarian Party of New Mexico's nomination. Republican U. S. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky crossed party lines to endorse Johnson's bid; Johnson was also endorsed by the Republican nominee for the U. S. Senate in Maine, Eric Brakey. In the November 2018 election, Democratic incumbent Martin Heinrich was reelected with 376,998 votes (54%); Republican nominee Mick Rich received 212,813 votes (31%); and Johnson received 107,201 votes (15%).

Johnson's views have been described as fiscally conservative and socially liberal with a philosophy of limited government and military non interventionism. Johnson spoke at the 2016 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), a forum for conservative politicians. He has identified as a classical liberal. Johnson has said he favors simplifying and reducing taxes. During his governorship, Johnson cut taxes fourteen times and never increased them. Due to his stance on taxes, political pundit David Weigel described him as "the original Tea Party candidate." Johnson has advocated the FairTax as a template for tax reform. This proposal would abolish all federal income, corporate and capital gains taxes, and replace them with a 23% tax on consumption of all non essential goods, while providing a regressive rebate to households according to household size, regardless of income level. He has argued that this would ensure transparency in the tax system and incentivize the private sector to create "tens of millions of jobs." In June 2016, Johnson said that he supported the Trans Pacific Partnership, stating that he previously was skeptical "because these trade agreements are just laden with crony capitalism," but is now informed it, in fact, fosters free trade.

In 1994, Johnson ran for governor of New Mexico, campaigning as a strong proponent of the death penalty, but over time, he changed his opinion. He now supports abolishing capital punishment and replacing it with life sentences.

Johnson's 2016 campaign website acknowledged that the climate is "probably" changing and that humans are "probably" contributing to this change. Johnson has argued that climate change will not matter in the "long term" and rejects government action to control or limit – including cap and trade – as ineffective: "When you look at the amount of money we are looking to spend on global warmingin the trillionsand look at the result, I just argue that the result is completely inconsequential to the money we would end up spending," he said. "We can direct those moneys to other ways that would be much more beneficial to mankind." Johnson has signed the Western Governors' Association resolution, which aims at "collaborative, incentive driven, locally based solutions," and has advocated for free market solutions to environmental problems. He has stated that he will not "compromise when it comes to clean air, clean land, or clean water." Johnson supports nuclear energy and fossil fuels, but has stated that the government has a role to protect Americans against businesses that would harm human health or property, including environmental harm.

Johnson opposed the U. S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC, allowing unlimited corporate independent expenditures on political campaigns, while also encouraging full disclosure of such expenditures.

Johnson has said that he would immediately balance the federal budget, and would demand a balanced budget amendment, but maintained a state deficit. He has advocated passing a law allowing for state bankruptcy and expressly ruling out a federal bailout of any states.

In his campaign for the Libertarian Party nomination, he stated he opposed foreign wars and pledged to cut the military budget by 43 percent in his first term as president. Johnson opposed U. S. involvement in the War in Afghanistan and opposed the U. S. involvement in the Libyan Civil War. He has stated that he does not believe Iran is a military threat, would use his presidential power to prevent Israel from attacking Iran, and would not follow Israel, or any other ally, into a war that it had initiated. While Johnson views the Islamic threat to the US as overrated, he has been openly advocating for greater diplomacy with China regarding North Korea, which, in his view, "is the biggest threat in the world today," stating " one of these days, one of their ICBMs is going to work." However, he does support waging war for humanitarian reasons.

Johnson has been a strong supporter of civil liberties and has received the highest score of any candidate from the American Civil Liberties Union for supporting drug decriminalization while opposing censorship and regulation of the Internet, the Patriot Act, enhanced airport screenings, and the indefinite detention of prisoners. He has spoken in favor of the separation of church and state, and has said that he does not "seek the counsel of God" when determining his political agenda. Johnson endorsed same sex marriage in 2011; and criticized Obama's position on the issue as having "thrown this question back to the states." Johnson has stated that he would pardon NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. He believes that decriminalizing sex work should be left up to the states, but has said that prostitutes are more "at risk" in an illegal environment.

Johnson supports abortion access. He has stated he believes that "it's the woman's choice." His 2016 position page on abortion states the "woman must be allowed to make decisions about her own health" and "government should not be in the business of second guessing".

Johnson supports comprehensive immigration reform and has criticized the immigration stances of Obama, Trump, and Hillary Clinton. In his 2012 campaign, he summed up his proposals as simplifying legal immigration while tackling illegal immigration. Johnson proposes "eliminating categories and quotas" and offering illegal immigrants without criminal records in the U. S. a path to legal status. In 2012, he called walls ineffective in stopping illegal immigrants and argued that the U. S. should instead work on tackling Mexican drug cartels by decriminalizing marijuana and giving cartels "diminished incentives to violate U. S. law." Johnson advocates simplifying restrictions on temporary work visas, granting illegal immigrants who obey the law a two year grace period to obtain work visas and streamlining the immigration process. He has also said, "a work visa should include a background check and a Social Security card so that taxes get paid" and supports a one strike, you're out deportation rule for immigrants who try to circumnavigate or cheat a simplified immigration process.

Johnson opposes federal and state gun control legislation, saying: "I'm a firm believer in the Second Amendment and so I would not have signed legislation banning assault weapons or automatic weapons." Johnson says that the Second Amendment "was designed to protect us against a government that could be very intrusive. And in this country, we have a growing police state – if people can own assault rifles or automatic rifles, I think leads to a more civil government." He opposes barring gun sales to individuals on the no fly list, because he claims that such lists have a high error rate.

Johnson was married to his college girlfriend, Dee Johnson (née Simms; 1952–2006) from 1977 to 2005. As First Lady of New Mexico, she engaged in campaigns against smoking and for breast cancer awareness At the age of 54, Dee Johnson died unexpectedly on December 22, 2006, her cause of death later attributed to hypertensive heart disease. The couple had two children, now adults. He also has a granddaughter, Cora, through his son Erik. Johnson was an avid triathlete who biked extensively. During his term in office, he competed in several triathlons, marathons and bike races. He competed three times (1993, 1997, 1999) as a celebrity invitee at the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii, registering his best time for the 2.4 mile (4 km) swim, 112 mile (180 km) bike ride, and 26.2 mile (42 km) marathon run in 1999 with 10 hours, 39 minutes, and 16 seconds. He once ran in 30 consecutive hours in the Rocky Mountains. "despite toes blackened with frostbite." He completed the Bataan Memorial Death March at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, in which participants traverse a course through the desert, many of them in combat boots and wearing packs. On October 12, 2005, Johnson was involved in a near fatal paragliding accident when his wing caught in a tree and he fell approximately to the ground. He suffered multiple bone fractures, including a burst fracture to his twelfth thoracic vertebra, a broken rib, and a broken knee; the accident left him shorter. He used medicinal marijuana for pain control from 2005 to 2008. Johnson is a Lutheran and has said that his belief in God has given him "a very fundamental belief that we should do unto others as we would have others do unto us." Johnson has celiac disease and maintains a gluten free diet.