Brian Johnson (politician)

Brian Johnson (born June 27, 1961) is an American politician serving in the Minnesota House of Representatives since 2013. A member of the Republican Party of Minnesota, Johnson represents District 28A in eastern Minnesota, which includes the cities of Cambridge, Isanti, and North Branch, and parts of Chisago and Isanti Counties.

Early life, education, and career
Johnson grew up on a dairy farm and attended Cambridge High School. He graduated from Hibbing Community College, now Minnesota North College Hibbing, with an associate degree in law enforcement.

Johnson worked as a firefighter and EMT in Braham and was a deputy sheriff in Isanti County for 17 years.

Minnesota House of Representatives
Johnson was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2012 and has been reelected every two years since. He first ran after redistricting and after one-term Republican incumbent Roger Crawford announced he would not seek reelection. Johnson supported Jason Lewis's 2020 campaign for U.S. Senate.

Johnson is the minority lead on the Housing Finance and Policy Committee and sits on the Judiciary Finance and Civil Law Committee. He served as vice chair of the Public Safety & Security Policy and Finance Committee during the 2017 legislative session. After chair Tony Cornish resigned following multiple allegations of sexual harassment, Johnson became chair of the committee for the 2018 session.

Public safety
Johnson has opposed various criminal justice reform proposals put forward by House Democrats, and accused the DFL of being "hostile" to police and "pushing an anti-law enforcement and defund the police policies". He opposed legislation requiring law enforcement to release unedited body camera footage after deadly force incidents to the families of the victims within 48 hours of the event. After the police killing of Daunte Wright, Johnson said, "it's unfortunate that he didn't comply and go to jail". He voted against legislation to ban no-knock warrants and opposed a bipartisan bill to return the right to vote to felons on parole, saying he believed it was unconstitutional. Johnson opposed legislation to legalize marijuana in Minnesota and a bill to provide driver's licenses to all Minnesotans regardless of immigration status.

Johnson has supported "tough on crime" policies, such as increasing patrols in high-risk areas, increasing police recruiting, and stronger penalties for violent crime. He introduced a bill that would make assaulting police officers a felony and prevent cities from disarming officers. He also sponsored a bill making it more difficult to release convicted sex offenders and people with mental illness seeking unconditional release and a bill requiring law enforcement officials to get a warrant before using drones. He supported bipartisan legislation to allow courts to reduce or waive certain court fines based on someone's ability to pay.

Johnson authored legislation to limit the power of the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission, an independent board that helps set criminal sentences. He said he believed the commission went "way too far" when reducing penalties for drug offenders and again overstepped when it set a five-year felony probation cap.

Gun control
Johnson has consistently opposed gun control legislation, saying we "have pretty good laws in place" to address gun violence. He has opposed increasing background checks and red flag laws, and said "we have to quit blaming the tool and look at what's causing it". In 2018, as public safety chair, he refused to hold hearings on gun control proposals introduced by DFLers, and later said it was too late in session to consider proposals authored by suburban Republican members.

Personal life
Johnson is married to his wife, Diane. They have one child and reside in Cambridge, Minnesota.