Only four months after winning re-election as a longtime Democrat, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson announced that he was defecting to the Republican party. Before assuming office, Johnson served nearly a decade in the Texas Legislature as a Democrat — making his decision to switch parties all the more shocking.
On Friday, Johnson announced his decision in an 0p-ed in the Wall Street Journal. “Today I am changing my party affiliation,” wrote Johnson. “Next spring, I will be voting in the Republican primary. When my career in elected office ends in 2027 on the inauguration of my successor as mayor, I will leave office as a Republican.”
In his op-ed, Johnson says that he won 98.7% of the vote in his re-election. Although it’s worth noting that was when he was running as a registered Democrat in a county that President Joe Biden overwhelmingly carried. The mayoral position is technically non-partisan, but it’s hard to argue that running as a registered Democrat in a deep-blue county didn’t have some impact on the vote.
Johnson criticized Democratic leadership, arguing that Democratic mayors (of which he was one until a few hours ago) have allowed cities to crumble into “disarray” and lawlessness. Johnson also pats himself on the back for standing up against the defund the police movement.
Johnson paints a picture of Democratic Mayors that is wholly incongruent with the state of play in blue cities. New York City’s Democratic Mayor, Eric Adams, is literally a former cop. And D.C.’s Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser has fought tooth and nail to prevent criminal justice reforms from going into effect.
He isn’t the only southern Democrat to defect to the Republican party in a dramatic fashion. In July, Georgia State Representative Mesha Mainor announced that she was switching to the Republican. Mainor, who served in a deep-blue Atlanta district, defended her decision by arguing that she was pushed out of the Democratic party. Mainor was criticized by Georgia Democrats but welcomed with open arms by folks like Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor-Greene, who applauded her decision to move parties.
As for Johnson, there will surely be a ton of backlash, but maybe, like Mainor, he’ll make some friends in his new party.
Fuck you and fuck your condescending edit.
You wrote that. I’m sorry you have so little respect for your peers that you can’t even acknowledge their gender when told. But apparently you’re such a selfish piece of garbage you can’t even manage that.
The republicans sure as hell aren’t talking about economic issues. It’s all “bullshit social agenda.” You gonna give them grief too or just attack the party you allegedly support?
Get this nonsense out of here. You’re just mad about the social issues. If it matters so little then why are GOP legislatures writing the legislation we’re seeing against LGBT-people nation wide? Why did it just become a crime for teachers to acknowledge a kids’ chosen pronouns in some states? Why are we seeing rapid erosion of trans rights in particular?
That “bullshit social agenda” impacts millions of Americans and not defending them erodes your rights as well.
Retards like you are going to hand the election to Trump.
People who use ableist slurs reinforce the message of garbage people like trump. You’re part of the problem.
Biden shakes lots of hands with garbage dictators. He’s out there doing deals with Saudi Arabia so he clearly cares nothing about human rights
Holy overly-reduced whataboutism batman
Oh wow excuse me for pointing out how we shouldn’t be doing deals with the devil while talking endlessly about human rights. Our words are hollow if we’re out there giving every dictator whatever they want without any consequences
Well you’re not excused because you know this is all bullshit you don’t actually believe. It’s a cudgel to use against someone whose opinion you don’t like. Don’t pretend you are actually making a substantive argument about governments and human rights. We both know what this is.
I do actually believe that we shouldn’t be doing deals with terrible countries with long histories of atrocities, yes
Dude no shit but name me a candidate we can vote for who won’t deal with the Saudis. Some of us live in reality.
This is the textbook definition of a bad faith assertion.