Mike Johanns

Johanns was born in Osage, Iowa, the son of Adeline Lucy (née Royek) and John Robert Johanns. His father was of German and some Luxembourgish ancestry, and his maternal grandparents immigrated from Poland. He grew up living and working on his family's farm.

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

After his graduation, he clerked for Nebraska Supreme Court Justice Hale McCown from 1974 to 1975, before practicing law for Cronin and Hannon in O'Neill, Nebraska, from 1975 to 1976. He was a partner at Nelson, Johanns, Morris, Holdeman, and Titus, a law firm he founded in Lincoln in 1976, where he practiced until 1991.

Johanns married his first wife, Connie Johanns, in 1972. They had two children together: a son, Justin and a daughter, Michaela. He also has five grandchildren. Johanns and his wife divorced in 1985, and in 1986 he married Stephanie Armitage, a former Lancaster County Commissioner and Nebraska state senator.

Johanns served on the Lancaster County Board from 1983 to 1987 as a Democrat. In 1988, he was elected as a Republican to the Lincoln City Council, where he served from 1989 to 1991. On May 7, 1991, he was elected the 47th mayor of Lincoln, defeating incumbent mayor Bill Harris with 54% of the vote. He took office as mayor on May 20, 1991. In 1995, Johanns won reelection with no opposition, becoming the first mayor of Lincoln to do so since the 1950s. After being elected governor of Nebraska, he was succeeded as mayor by Dale Young, who was appointed by the Lincoln City Council.