J. Bennett Johnston, Jr.
| John Bennett Johnston, Jr. | |
 | |
| In office November 14, 1972 – January 3, 1997 | |
| Preceded by | Elaine Edwards (interim for Allen J. Ellender) |
|---|---|
| Succeeded by | Mary Landrieu |
Louisiana State Senator for
Caddo Parish (at-large) | |
| In office 1968 – May 1972 | |
| Preceded by | B. H. "Johnny" Rogers Jackson Beauregard Davis |
Louisiana State Representative
for Caddo Parish (at-large) | |
| In office May 1964 – 1968 | |
| Preceded by | Wellborn Jack |
| Succeeded by | At-large delegation |
| Born | June 10, 1932 Shreveport, Louisiana, USA |
| Died | March 25, 2025 (aged 92) Arlington, Virginia Resident of Sperryville, Virginia |
| Resting place | Shreveport, Louisiana Name of cemetery not disclosed |
| Political party | Democrat |
| Spouse(s) | Mary Gunn Johnston |
| Children | Hunter, Sally, Mary, and Bennett, III Son-law Tim Roemer |
| Alma mater | Washington and Lee University United States Military Academy Louisiana State University School of Law |
| Occupation | Lawyer United States Army (1956-1959) |
| Religion | Baptist |
John Bennett Johnston, Jr. (June 10, 1932 – March 25, 2025), was a lawyer/lobbyist in Washington, D.C., who served from 1972 to 1997 as a Democrat member of the United States Senate from his native Louisiana. He is remembered for his defense of the state's oil and gas interests and worked in a bipartisan fashion to win congressional funding for infrastructure projects throughout Louisiana. He claimed friendship with Senate colleague Alan Simpson, a Moderate Republican from Wyoming, who died eleven days prior to the passing of Johnston.
He also was friendly with the Republican Presidents Richard M. Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush. In 1987, Johnston cast a vote against Reagan's nomination of the legal conservative Robert Bork to the United States Supreme Court. The position then went to the more liberal Anthony Kennedy. In 2000, then incoming President George W. Bush offered Johnston the position of secretary of energy but he declined for reasons of age and personal family and business commitments.[1]
Prior to his Senate tenure, Johnston was from 1968 to 1972 a Louisiana state senator and from 1964 to 1968 a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from Shreveport in Caddo Parish. He ran unsuccessfully in the fall of 1971 for the Louisiana governorship, losing his party's nomination to then U.S. Representative Edwin Edwards of Crowley in Acadia Parish.
In his first election to the U.S. Senate in 1972, Johnston challenged the incumbent Allen J. Ellender of Terrebonne Parish in the Democratic primary. Ellender died during the campaign, and Johnston easily won the party nomination and then defeated Republican Ben C. Toledano of New Orleans and former Governor John J. McKeithen, a Democrat from Caldwell Parish running as an Independent. In 1978, to gain his second term, Johnston defeated then State Representative Woody Jenkins of Baton Rouge, a strong conservative who tried to paint Johnston as an out-of-touch liberal. In 1990, Johnston defeated then State Representative David Duke of Jefferson Parish, a former figure in the Ku Klux Klan, who ran as a Republican but without the backing of the state's GOP apparatus. State Senator Ben Bagert of New Orleans, a Democrat-turned-Republican, also ran for the Senate that year but dropped out in the last week of the campaign because of weak poll standings. U.S. District Judge Robert Bork made three campaign appearances on Bagert's behalf. Johnston had been among a number of southern Democrats who in 1987 helped to kill U.S. President Ronald W. Reagan's nomination of Judge Bork to the United States Supreme Court.
Johnston served as chairman of the Senate Energy Committee during a period when energy issues dominated the nation's agenda. During his tenure, his senatorial colleagues from Louisiana were Russell Long and John Breaux. Johnston was so powerful in his position that he was able to designate Mary Landrieu, a fellow Democrat, as his successor beginning in January 1997. After defeating Jenkins in a disputed outcome, Landrieu held the Johnston seat for eighteen years until her defeat in 2014 by the Moderate Republican Bill Cassidy.
When Johnston stepped down in the 1996 election, Troyce Guice, a native of St. Joseph in Tensas Parish who had run against Senator Ellender in 1966, tried a second time for the Senate but finished in a multi-candidate field with just over 1 percent of the vote.[2]
Johnston's son-in-law is former U.S. Representative Tim Roemer of Indiana.
In December 2018, Johnston and Mary Landrieu were among forty-four former senators from both parties who signed a letter of concern to the U.S. Senate urging that the members protect Robert Mueller's continued investigation of U.S. President Donald Trump.
See also
- Bob Mann, Johnston's press secretary in the 1990 reelection bid
- Bernie Pinsonat, Louisiana pollster who was a member of Johnston's staff
References
- ↑ Tyler Bridges (March 25, 2025). J. Bennett Johnston, who delivered millions for Louisiana during long Senate career, dies at 92. New Orleans Times-Picayune.
- ↑ Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, September 21, 1996.
