Tim Johnson, former Senate Banking chair, dies at age 77

CQ Roll Call Staff, CQ-Roll Call on Oct 9, 2024

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WASHINGTON — Former Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., who served nearly three decades on Capitol Hill, culminating in his chairmanship of the Senate Banking Committee, has died at the age of 77.

His longtime former chief of staff, Drey Samuelson, announced Johnson’s death Tuesday on Facebook.

“It’s with great sadness that I write these words: our former boss, our good friend, Tim Johnson, has departed this life,” Samuelson wrote. “He died a few hours ago, surrounded by his family, but also surrounded by the love and admiration that all of us have felt for him for many years.”

Johnson came to Congress after the 1986 elections, filling an opening left when then-Rep. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., who later became Senate Democratic leader, first won his Senate seat. Johnson later seized an opportunity to join Daschle in the Senate in the 1996 elections, when he eked out a slim victory over the Republican incumbent, Larry Pressler.

Johnson went on to serve three Senate terms before announcing his retirement ahead of the 2014 elections, a tough year for Democrats, who went on to lose control of the chamber. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., won the open seat after defeating his Democratic challenger, Rick Weiland, by about 21 points. Johnson’s old rival, Pressler, also ran in that race as an independent, eating into Weiland’s support.

In his 2002 reelection bid, Johnson almost didn’t make it back to Congress. He fended off a stiff challenge from a young GOP congressman, John Thune, by a mere 524 votes — a 0.1-percentage-point margin. Johnson was the last lawmaker to defeat Thune, who went on to upset Daschle two years later in another close race and is now in the running to be Senate Republican leader in the 119th Congress.

Johnson experienced health problems going back to the Vietnam War era; he was refused admission to the military after a his physical uncovered a benign tumor in his left ear. Johnson had surgery to remove it, which left him deaf in that ear. In 2004, he had successful surgery for prostate cancer.

His biggest health scare came in late 2006, when Johnson had emergency brain surgery after a congenital arteriovenous malformation caused bleeding in his brain and produced stroke-like symptoms.

Johnson was hospitalized for months, which caused Senate Democrats some heartburn after they had just won a slim 51-49 majority in the midterms. He was never the same afterwards, using a wheelchair or a cane to get around Capitol Hill and speaking more slowly, sometimes slurring his words.

Johnson served on the Senate Appropriations Committee, eventually rising to become chairman of its Military Construction-VA Subcommittee. He also served on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and the Indian Affairs Committee. And he was active on agricultural issues — a top industry in his state — playing a lead role on the 2002 country-of-origin labeling requirements written into that year’s farm bill.

He was perhaps best known for his role leading Democrats on the Banking Committee, which oversaw another major South Dakota industry: credit cards. Johnson served in the state Legislature in the 1980s when lawmakers paved the way for Citibank to move its credit card operations to Sioux Falls, the state’s largest city.

Johnson became Banking chairman in the 112th Congress, after the retirement of Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., the former chairman who was one half of the landmark 2010 financial regulatory overhaul package known as Dodd-Frank.

Johnson was a centrist voice on financial services issues owing to his constituency back home, becoming the lone Democrat in 2009 to vote against tighter credit card regulations. But he also opposed the 2008 Wall Street bailout bill and didn’t attempt to revisit the Dodd-Frank law.

Johnson was a moderate on other issues as well. He won the National Rifle Association’s endorsement in his 2008 reelection campaign, and he voted for the first major tax cut under President George W. Bush in 2001 as well as the 1996 welfare overhaul in a deal that President Bill Clinton cut with congressional Republican leaders.