Hiram Warren Johnson (September 2, 1866–August 6, 1945) was a leading American Progressive politician from California; he served as Governor from 1911-1917, and as a United States Senator from 1917-1945.

Johnson was born in Sacramento, California, his father was Grove Lawrence Johnson, a Republican Representative famous for fighting corruption by denouncing dishonest politicians to their face armed with a pistol.

After attending public schools, he first worked as a shorthand reporter and stenographer in law offices. He eventually decided on a legal career, studying at the University of California at Berkeley. He was admitted to the Bar in 1888 and commenced practice in his hometown. In 1902 he moved to San Francisco. He served as Assistant District Attorney and became active in reform politics, taking up the anti-corruption mantle his father had held. He attracted statewide attention in 1907 when he served as the prosecution in a notorious graft-trial case, his success due to the fact that his predecessor had been gunned down in the courtroom. He married Minne L. McNeal; the couple had two sons.

In 1910 he defeated Theodore Bell in the Gubernatorial election as a member of the 'Lincoln-Roosevelt' Party, a liberal Republican movement running on an anti-Southern Pacific Platform. He toured the state by automobile. In office, Johnson was a populist who implemented several reforms. Among these were the popular election of U.S. Senators, relief for woman's suffrage and campaign reform to allow candidates to register in multiple parties.

Nationally, Johnson was a founder of the United States Progressive Party in 1912. That same year, he was the Vice Presidential candidate on the ticket with former President Theodore Roosevelt; his selection helped Roosevelt to carry California by 0.2% of the votes cast, but the Progressives lost the election to Woodrow Wilson.

Johnson was re-elected to the Governorship in 1914, and in 1916 he ran successfully for the U.S. Senate, taking office on March 6th, 1917. Following Roosevelt's death in 1919, Johnson came to be regarded as the natural leader of Progressives in the United States. In 1920 he was defeated for the Republican Presidential Nomination by Warren Harding, finishing with eighty-and-a-quarter votes. He received ten votes for the nomination against Calvin Coolidge in 1924. As a Senator, Johnson proved extremely popular with the residents of his homestate - in 1940 he was re-elected with 94.5% of the popular vote.

During the Presidency of Franklin Roosevelt Johnson supported his economic recovery package the New Deal and frequently crossed the floor to aide the Democrats, although he never switched party affiliation. He achieved Senate seniority as Chairman of the Committee on Cuban Relations in the Sixty-sixth Congresses ; he was also a member of the Patents, Immigration, Territories and Insular Possessions and Commerce Committees.

Having served in the Senate for almost thirty years, Johnson died in Bethesda, Maryland, on August 6, 1945. He was interred in Cyprus Lawn Cemetery in San Francisco.

External links

• Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Biography from the State of California
• Historical archiveof the Sacramento, California newspaper Sacramento Bee