There are not many active political offices held by people from a party other than the Democratic or Republican Party. Gary Johnson would be an exception to this congress. He is a writer, businessman, and former frontman. He is also the founder of one of the largest construction companies operating in the state of New Mexico. Johnson was also the 29th Governor of New Mexico and a former presidential candidate for the Liberal Party in 2012 and 2016.
Gary Johnson Wiki, Bio
Gary grew up in the town of Minot in North Dakota. His father, Earl Johnson, worked as a teacher at a public school. His mother, Lorraine B., was a staff member of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He was born on the first day of January 1953. Johnson received his high school education at Sandia High School in Albuquerque. He was accepted to the University of New Mexico where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science. During his time there, where he spent four years from 1971 to 1975, he committed himself to the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity. At UNM he met Denise Simms, who would later become his wife.
After finishing school he was inspired to start his own business, combining his studies with a part-time job as a do-it-yourselfer. Gary Johnson started his own mechanical contracting business in 1976. He called it Big J Enterprises and was the only employee at the beginning.
His entrepreneurial “light at the end of the tunnel” came when Johnson won a major contract from Intel’s expansion in Rio Rancho. This unique contract boosted Big J Enterprises’ sales to $38 million.
Johnson was to sell the company later, in 1999, for a tidy sum, but not before it had grown into a multimillion-dollar company with over 1000 employees. After the Intel deal, he even had to take a time management course, which in his opinion helped him stay highly focused and motivated.
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Political Career
By this time he was already heavily involved in politics and was in his first term as Governor of New Mexico. Gary started his governor campaign in 1994 with 500,000 dollars from his own funds under the slogan “People before Politics”. He proposed to lead with a “sound business sense” in his election. He talked about tax cuts, job creation, cutting budget growth, and law and order. Johnson defeated all his opponents, including incumbent Bruce King.
He proposed a lot of tax cuts in his first budget, but could only push through the gasoline tax cut of 6 cents a gallon. However, he also almost tripled spending on education. During his re-election campaign, he won by a larger margin than in his first campaign. He did so with the great promise of continuing his first term.
By the end of his two terms, he was widely regarded as a strong leader who made the state fiscally sound thanks to his administrative efforts. Upon leaving office, New Mexico went from a surplus in government spending to a budget deficit of $1 billion.
Gary Johnson and friends in an auto repair shop johnson were once quoted as saying that he was a Republican who was not interested in running for the presidency. This statement came as part of the Libertarian Party’s efforts to win him as their ticket holder for the 2000 presidential election.
After his time as governor, he would stay away from active politics for a while. He endorsed Ron Paul for the 2008 Republican presidential election because, like him, Ron Paul advocated less government spending and more freedom and lasting prosperity for all Americans.
During his non-active period, he wrote a book entitled Seven Principles of Good Government. He also served on the advisory board of a nonprofit student organization, Students for Sensible Drug Policy, which advocated changes in drug policy. He also served on the board of directors of Students for Liberty, a non-profit libertarian organization.
Johnson announced that he would make an attempt to become president in 2011. However, after scoring poorly in Republican polls and failing to qualify for the debates, he switched allegiance and ran for the Libertarian Party. He won the party’s nomination. However, he won only 0.99% – 1,275,971 votes – which was still the best result in the party’s history.
Johnson won the Liberty Party nomination again in 2016 but failed again during the actual election.
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Gary Johnson Wife
Johnson met his wife Dee Simms during his time at the University of New Mexico. They married in 1977, two years after Johnson left the UNM, and they have two children. They were married until their divorce in 2005. During her time as First Lady of New Mexico, she was active in anti-smoking campaigns and breast cancer education.
Dee Johnson died of hypertensive heart disease on December 22, 2006.
In 2012 Gary Johnson got engaged again. His partner is a real estate agent named Kate Prusack, whom he met in 2009. According to her, the reason they are not married is that Gary is always on the road.
Heart Attack and Tongue Stunts, Net Worth
Gary Johnson is a businessman and politician. But sometimes he goes against the grain by showing a sense of theatricality. The event that easily comes to mind is a video that appeared where Gary faked a heart attack. It was a video that was filmed by Gary Johnson at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February 2015. He was debating the legalization of marijuana.
US congresswoman Anne Marie Buerkle made a false statement about the heart attack rate of marijuana users. Gary Johnson, instead of answering her, clasped his chest and bent over on stage. This video appeared at just the right time and helped some undecided voters who had chosen the Libertarian Party in the 2016 presidential election.
Another video of Gary had spread before the “heart attack” joke. But this time it worked against him. Johnson had stuck his tongue out through his teeth during an MSNBC interview with Kasie Hunt. He was asked how a debate slot would work to win the election for him. He replied that he could not say anything during the entire debate and still come out as the winner.
Gary Johnson’s pre-political career as a businessman definitely earned him a lot of money in the bank. His current net worth is between $10 million dollars.
