Eric Johnson is the Mayor of Dallas, Texas.
Mayor Johnson was first elected in 2019. His popularity as Mayor was such that, in this year’s election (held on May 6),he ran virtually unopposed, winning with 98.7% of the vote.
But there is more to this story.
Until this year, Eric Johnson was a Democrat. He won the Mayoralty as a Democrat in 2019, and again this year…
…but Eric Johnson is not a Democrat anymore. This week, he switched parties and became a Republican.
Why did Mayor Johnson do so? Here, in his own words via a commentary in the Wall Street Journal, is his answer:
“When my career in elected office ends in 2027 on the inauguration of my successor as mayor, I will leave office as a Republican. I realize this will come as a surprise to many,” Johnson wrote in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. “The future of America’s great urban centers depends on the willingness of the nation’s mayors to champion law and order and practice fiscal conservatism. Our cities desperately need the genuine commitment to these principles (as opposed to the inconsistent, poll-driven commitment of many Democrats) that has long been a defining characteristic of the GOP.”
Translation: Mayor Johnson, who is both young (just 47 years old) and Black, recognizes the damage wreaked on major cities around the country by his Democrat former counterparts – especially (I assume, given the order of importance he ascribes to it) due to the demoralizing/defunding of police.
He doesn’t want Dallas to become the next San Francisco. Or Baltimore Or Saint Louis. Or Philadelphia. Or Portland. Or Seattle. Or Los Angeles. Or….well, you get the idea. So he broke free and promises to go in a different direction.
My congratulations to Mayor Eric Johnson, for having the principles, and the guts, to make such a bold move; one that is sure to be condemned by so many of his former political soulmates.
I hope Dallas benefits from his action…and that, if it does, other Democrats – especially Black Democrats – get the message his actions will have sent.
