In the general election on November 3, he faced Democrat Debra A. Payne, a small businesswoman who owned a data-processing firm and was a three-term councilwoman in Gahanna. Payne told "The Columbus Dispatch" "I went door to door and asked, 'Do you know who your state senator is?' They said, 'I have no idea,' and I said, 'That's why you need me.' " Johnson defeated her by a vote of 53,074 (54.79%) to 43,796 (45.21%), a decreased margin of seven percent from 1994. After his reelection, the Senate Republican caucus elected him assistant president pro tempore, the third ranking post in the GOP leadership, defeating fellow a Franklin County senator, Eugene Watts of Dublin, who sought another term in that post.