Quick Facts
Biography
Lowell Blake Johnson (born c. 1971) is a farmer from his native Clay County, Arkansas, who is a Republican member of the Arkansas State Senate for District 20, which includes Clay, Greene, Lawrence and parts of Randolph and Craighead counties, based in the northeastern portion of his state.
Background
Johnson graduated from Corning High School in Corning, Arkansas, and Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, with a bachelor's degree in Exercise Science. Since 1995, he has been a self-employed farmer raising rice and soybeans on family-owned land. Johnson is a member of the Chamber of Commerce. He is affiliated with the Corning Baptist Church and the Gideons International, a Bible-distribution group.
Political life
From 2005 to 2015, Johnson served on the Corning City Council, including a time on the Parks and Recreation Committee from 2006 to 2009. In 2012, he ran in the general election against incumbent Democrat state Senator Robert F. Thompson. He lost by 447 votes; Thompson polled 13,616 (50.8 percent) to Johnson's 13,169 (49.2 percent). In 2014, Johnson reversed the tide; in a stronger Republican year than in 2012, he unseated Thompson, 12,096 votes (53.8 percent) to 10,405 (46.2 percent).
Johnson sits on these Senate committees: (1) Education, (2) Agriculture, Forestry, and Economic Development, (3) Senate Rules, Resolutions, and Memorials, (4) Joint Public Retirement and Social Security Programs, and (5) Legislative Joint Auditing.
In February 2015, Johnson supported House Bill 1228, authored by Republican Bob Ballinger of Carroll County in northwestern Arkansas. The measure sought to prohibit government from imposing a burden on the free exercise of religion. Johnson's colleague, Representative Camille Bennett, a Democrat from Lonoke, called for a reworking of the legislation on the theory that the Ballinger bill would establish a "type of religious litmus test" which could impact nearly any law under consideration by the legislature. The legislation was subsequently passed by a large margin in the House and signed into law in revised form, SB 975, by Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson.
That same month, Johnson joined the large Senate majority, with only seven dissenters, which reduced payments of unemployment compensation, another measure signed into law by Governor Hutchinson.