Tim Johnson, three-term senator from South Dakota, dies at 77

The cause was complications from a recent stroke, according to Julianne Fisher Breitbeil, a former communications director in his Senate office.

Mr. Johnson suffered a life-threatening brain hemorrhage in December 2006, one month after the midterm elections in which Democrats won enough seats to retake control of the Senate with a 51-49 majority.

Had Mr. Johnson been unable to resume his duties, and had then-Gov. Mike Rounds (R) appointed a fellow Republican to fill his seat, the GOP might have controlled the chamber with Vice President Dick Cheney as the tiebreaking vote, a topic of frenzied — and, some observers said, unseemly — discussion at the time.

After eight months of rehabilitation, including speech and physical therapy, Mr. Johnson returned to work in August 2007, served out his term and won reelection in 2008. He declined to run again in 2014.

Mr. Johnson was known as a moderate Democrat, a profile that allowed him to go undefeated in a long political career in his solidly Republican state.

He opposed federal funding for abortions except in cases of rape, incest and threat to the mother’s life. He voted for President George W. Bush’s tax cut in 2001 and received the endorsement of the National Rifle Association. But he was also a vocal supporter of expanding access to health care and backed the Affordable Care Act of 2010, a centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s domestic agenda.

In his final four years on Capitol Hill, Mr. Johnson chaired the Senate Banking Committee, where he had previously helped oversee the federal response to the 2007-2008 financial crisis. In general, however, he used his influence — including on the Appropriations Committee — to benefit ranchers, farmers, Native Americans, rural communities and other groups that made up his South Dakota constituency.

“I chose to do what was comfortable for me, and that was to be a workhorse and not a show horse,” Mr. Johnson told the Argus Leader of Sioux Falls at the end of his political career.

His mild-mannered demeanor belied his strengths as a campaigner, which helped him unseat a three-term Republican incumbent, Larry Pressler, to win his Senate seat in 1996.

Six years later, in one of the most expensive political campaigns per capita of the 2002 midterms, Mr. Johnson headed off a challenge from Republican John Thune, then serving as South Dakota’s at-large representative, by 524 votes.

Two years later, Thune challenged Democrat Tom Daschle, South Dakota’s senior senator and the Senate minority leader, defeating him in an upset. (Thune is today the Senate Republican whip.)

In 2008, Joel Dykstra, a Republican state House member, challenged Mr. Johnson for reelection, arguing that voters wanted “some evidence as to whether he can hold his own” as he recovered from the hemorrhage.

The episode, attributed to a congenital condition called an arteriovenous malformation, had become apparent when Mr. Johnson struggled to speak during a conference call with reporters. He was taken to the hospital, underwent emergency brain surgery and was placed in a medically induced coma.

Through rehabilitation, Mr. Johnson regained his speech, although it was slower than it had once been. Because of his condition, he declined to debate Dykstra in the 2008 race. He relied on a scooter for long-distance mobility but walked into the Senate chamber using a cane. In the end, he easily fended off the election challenge.

“He was very much respected by members of both parties,” said Bob Burns, a professor emeritus of political science at South Dakota State University. “You rarely heard any critical comments regarding Senator Johnson. He was regarded as … someone who could find common ground in his work as a legislator.”

Timothy Peter Johnson, a descendant of Norwegian homesteaders, was born in Canton, S.D., on Dec. 28, 1946. His father taught chemistry and coached football at the local high school, and his mother managed the home.

Mr. Johnson attended the University of South Dakota, where he received a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1969, a master’s degree in public administration in 1970 and a law degree in 1975. He was unable to serve in the military during the Vietnam War because of a benign tumor in his left ear, which left him deaf on that side.

Mr. Johnson practiced law in Vermillion, S.D., before launching his political career in the South Dakota legislature, where he won a seat in the state House in 1978. He supported social safety-net programs and was known as a “progressive,” Burns said, at a time when cultural issues had not yet expanded the divide between the two parties.

Mr. Johnson was elected in 1982 to the state Senate and in 1986 won the U.S. House seat vacated when Daschle ran successfully for the Senate.

In the House, Mr. Johnson voted against the 1991 Persian Gulf War resolution for the U.S.-led attack against Iraqi forces occupying Kuwait.

Eleven years later, as a U.S. senator, he voted in favor of authorizing President George W. Bush to use force against Iraq, a prelude to the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. It was a matter of personal importance to Mr. Johnson, whose son Brooks Johnson was in the Army’s 101st Airborne Division, had served in Afghanistan and would ultimately serve in Iraq.

“There is a strong possibility that I may be voting to send my own son into combat, and that gives me special empathy for the families of other American servicemen and women whose own sons and daughters may also be sent to Iraq,” Mr. Johnson said in a speech on the Senate floor. “Nevertheless, I am willing to cast this vote — one of the most important in my career both as a senator and certainly as a father — because I recognize the threat that Saddam Hussein represents to world peace.” Weapons of mass destruction, which the Bush administration had claimed that Iraq possessed, were never found.

Besides his son Brooks, Mr. Johnson’s survivors include his wife of 55 years, the former Barbara Brooks; two other children, Brendan Johnson and Kelsey Billion; a brother; a sister; and eight grandchildren.

Mr. Johnson’s temperament was on display when he returned to the Senate after his rehabilitation for his brain hemorrhage.

“I believe I have an unfair edge over most of my colleagues right now,” he said in his somewhat labored speech. “My mind works faster than my mouth does. Washington would probably be a better place if more people took a moment to think before they spoke.”

Researcher Monika Mathur contributed to this report.