Pete Johnson’s grandfather served as a Mississippi Congressman and Governor, and his uncle was Mississippi Lieutenant Governor and Governor. Johnson himself received a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Mississippi at Oxford in 1971 and a law degree from the Jackson School of Law in 1974. He joined the Bank of Clarksdale as a Senior Vice President, and also served as President of the Young Bankers Section of the Mississippi Bankers Association. He then moved into the financial planning field and formed his own firm. In 1984, the Governor of Mississippi appointed him Chair of the Mississippi Marketing Council. He was also President of the Clarksdale-Coahoma County Chamber of Commerce and Director of the Delta Council’s Community and Industrial Development Board. In 1988 Johnson was elected to a four-year term as Mississippi State Auditor, after which President George H. W. Bush appointed him Mississippi Director of the Farmers Home Administration. Johnson practiced law in Clarksdale for the firm, Johnson Bobo. On October 23, 2001, President George W. Bush nominated Johnson to become the first Federal Co-Chairman of the Delta Regional Authority.
