2024 GENERAL ELECTION ENDORSEMENTS
(To Present Date)
2024 Friend of Agriculture (Ohio Farm Bureau Federation AGGPAC)
Ohio Chamber of Commerce
National Federation of Independent Business Ohio PAC
Ohio Society of Certified Public Accountants
Affiliated Construction Trades Ohio Foundation
Teamsters Ohio D.R.I.V.E.
Ohio State Association of Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Mechanical Equipment Service Technicians
Ohio Laborers’ District Council
National Rifle Association-PVF (With “A+” Rating, and recipient of the Defender of Freedom Award)
Buckeye Firearms PAC (With “A+” Rating)
Ohio State Medical Association PAC
Republican Senate Campaign Committee
Ohio Republican Party
Clermont County Republican Party
Brown County Republican Party
Scioto County Republican Party
Scioto County Republican Party Club
About Dr. Terry Johnson
Terry A. Johnson, D.O., is a retired but still licensed physician, a medical educator, a retired military officer, and concluded four terms in the Ohio legislature as a state representative, bringing that service to a close in 2018 due to term limits. As a legislator, he sponsored important health-related laws, including one that helped rein in the scourge of prescription drug abuse in Ohio. At the dawn of the current opioid epidemic, those illicit prescribing practices caused countless people to become addicted. He was also a noted champion of Second Amendment legislation. He concluded his time in the Ohio House in a distinguished fashion, serving through four General Assemblies. Of note, he was the first and, to this date, only osteopathic physician to serve in the Ohio legislature. Subsequently, he accepted an appointment to the Ohio Senate, and then was elected to that position. He is presently concluding his first elected term as state senator and is seeking reelection in Ohio’s 14th Senate District.
A 1991 graduate of the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine, Dr. Johnson is a clinical professor of family medicine and a former assistant dean. He served continuously as a family practice physician for nearly three decades in southern Ohio, his lifelong home.
Commissioned into the Ohio Army National Guard while a fourth-year medical student, he attained the rank of full colonel in just 12 years. A U.S Army senior flight surgeon, Dr. Johnson was deployed overseas multiple times in the Global War On Terrorism, including two tours in Iraq and one posting in Kuwait, at which time he was the Task Force Flight Surgeon, flying in and out of Iraq many times as a crew member on Blackhawk helicopters. He ended his military career with the rank of colonel in 2011 as the Army Guard's State Surgeon, the highest rank and position attainable for an Ohio Army Guard medical corps officer at that time.
Dr. Johnson served as Scioto County Coroner from 2002-2010, leaving that position after being elected to represent Ohio's 89th House District. Having seen first-hand as coroner the destructive impacts of prescription drug abuse, Dr. Johnson partnered with fellow representative and pharmacist Dave Burke to author House Bill 93, dubbed the "Anti-Pill Mill Bill." The bill, which passed the General Assembly in a remarkably quick five months and was signed immediately into law in May 2011, placed limitations on the in-office prescribing of controlled drugs, added licensing requirements for pain clinics and created a take-back program to help people safely dispose of unused medications. House Bill 93 effectively closed Ohio’s illicit “Pill Mills”, which were causing large numbers of our citizens to become addicted to opioids. HB-93 was considered landmark legislation—and it was Terry’s first bill.
Dr. Johnson also joint sponsored House Bill 296, which allows schools, school districts and residential or day camps to stock epinephrine "epi-pens" to treat anaphylactic shock. House Bill 170, which he sponsored in 2013, greatly expanded access to naloxone hydrochloride (Narcan), a medication that can save the lives of people suffering overdoses of heroin or prescription pain medication. Literally thousands of lives have been saved as a result of his bills.
Even as Terry worked hard to combat illicit drugs and to pass lifesaving legislation, he was also making his mark as a strong Right To Life leader and a transformative Second Amendment advocate. As the only physician in the legislature at that time, Terry’s advice and counsel as a physician was much sought after by those wishing to stand for the most vulnerable among us: the unborn. He signed onto the Heartbeat Bill upon arriving in the legislature, and fought for its passage in each and every term of his service in the House.
He also immediately made his mark fighting for your constitutional right to keep and bear arms. He started his first term in 2011 with A ratings from both the NRA and Buckeye Firearms legislative PACs, and thereafter received their coveted “A+” ratings, the highest that a legislator can achieve. In the Ohio Senate, after authoring Ohio’s Constitutional Carry Law, and for his remarkable body of work for Ohioans’ Second Amendment rights, Terry was presented with the NRA’s Defender of Freedom Award, the highest award given by that organization. Terry believes with all of his heart and soul that your constitutional rights are worth fighting for. He understands that the center of gravity in the battle to reverse America’s drift toward socialism and communism rests primarily at the state level of government, and he has thrown himself into that battle to the full extent of his abilities.
Also in the Ohio Senate, Terry Johnson passed the Born Alive Infant Protection Act. Among many other important bills that he worked on were fireworks reform and the landmark SB-22, the law that subjected Ohio’s emergency pandemic mandates to legislative oversight. Many credit this legislation for reopening Ohio’s economy and getting us back to our lives, jobs and businesses.
Terry Johnson is a man with many titles and one of the busiest people you will ever meet. Dedicated to service, he has spent untold hours helping others and leading in a principled, value-based way. Does that mean he has “spread himself too thin” to be effective? Absolutely not, as evidenced by the fact that he has excelled in every field of endeavor that he has participated in, be it medical, military, or political. In 2010, students at the Southern Ohio Medical Center in Portsmouth, a site where he was a former director of the Family Practice Residency, named him Family Physician of the Year. In 2011, Dr. Johnson was named National Physician of the Year by the American Osteopathic Foundation, and Ohio's Family Physician of the Year by the Ohio Academy of the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians. In 2014, Dr. Johnson was honored by Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine (OUHCOM) with the Phillips Medal for Public Service, the highest award that the college has to offer. In 2016, he was awarded the OUHCOM Medal of Merit, the highest award for an alumnus of that school. In 2018, the Ohio Osteopathic Association awarded Dr. Johnson with the Distinguished Service Award, its highest honor for an osteopathic physician.
Dr. Johnson completed his military service as a highly decorated Medical Corps officer, with nearly half of his career spent in command positions. Among his many decorations are the Legion of Merit, multiple awards of the Meritorious Service Medal, the Ohio Distinguished Service Medal, and the US Army’s Senior Flight Surgeon Badge.
Early in his legislative career Dr. Johnson was singled out as a “Watchdog of the Treasury” by United Conservatives of Ohio. He also has received State Legislator of the Year awards from two statewide veterans' groups, the AMVETS Department of Ohio in 2013, and on two separate occasions by the Vietnam Veterans of America Buckeye State Council. In 2017, the American Conservative Union Foundation recognized him for his 100% conservative voting record. In 2018, he was presented with Awake Ohio’s Legislator of the Year Award for his commitment to religious freedom and Christian values.
Dr. Johnson graduated summa cum laude in 1985 from Ohio University with a bachelor's degree in history, before attending that university's College of Osteopathic Medicine. He completed his family practice residency at Doctor's Hospital in Columbus, after which he returned to the Portsmouth area to practice in 1994.
Originally elected to represent Ohio's 89th House District, Dr. Johnson saw his district lines redrawn, and in 2012 was elected to represent the new 90th District, which includes all of Scioto and Adams counties, and a part of Lawrence County.
Dr. Johnson finished his medical career with Valley View Health Centers in Waverly, Ohio, as Director of Medically Assisted Treatment and Integrated Health Services. Dr. Johnson worked directly with addicted people, particularly those afflicted with opiate and alcohol addiction. He strove to help his patients achieve what he calls “Total Healing”—healing spiritually, mentally, and physically—by helping them change their lives and finding their true potential as healthy human beings. He did this through counseling and education of those who sought his help. Dr. Johnson is a passionate proponent of health and healing and takes a holistic view of what healing actually means—a view that is consistent with his training as an osteopathic physician. He is a resident of Scioto County, where he lives with his wife, Jennifer, who is a pharmacist. He has four adult sons and three grandchildren.