Dallas Elected a Longtime Democrat as Mayor, but Now He's Defecting to the Republican Party

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.

Brunbrun6766,
@Brunbrun6766@lemmy.world avatar

Time to recall

Fredselfish,
@Fredselfish@lemmy.world avatar

Exactly it should be illegal to change parties AFTER being elected as the another.

You know what two can play at this. See what happens if I run as a Republican for office get elected and then switch to a Democrat afterwards.

How long before Republicans outest me?

Fucking the Democratic party who back him and probably finance him should make part of the party creed that can’t just change parties like that after you won.

Serinus,

You don’t have to officially change parties to change votes.

PetDinosaurs,

Right? Parties are just a way for people to try to guess how and if their elected officials are going to lead.

LanternEverywhere,

That's not true in many branches of government. In many situations the party that has the majority of seats gets a big amount of additional powers.

jonne,

That’s all contingent on the speaker or equivalent getting the necessary votes. You could get into the house as a Republican and vote for Hakeem Jeffreys to be speaker.

morgan_423,
@morgan_423@lemmy.world avatar

“I’m sorry, fairly-right-of-center Southern Democrats. You’re not quite evil enough for me anymore, I need to spread my wings.”

chemicalprophet,

Another black Republican? WTF?

IHaveTwoCows,

Black republicans hate their race. Seriously

PetDinosaurs,

Seriously. I have no idea how you could be non-white and vote for these people.

I know the white working class has been fed a steady diet of fox propaganda for 30 years, but bipoc and lgptq? You’re not the target audience for the propaganda, and it should be pretty obvious how much they hate you.

flames5123,

All these “gays for republicans” are really on the borderline of cognitive.

mjhelto,

Pretty much anyone that votes for Republicans is.

IHaveTwoCows,

My nephew is gay and a devout Christian and has spent his whole life in emotional turmoil.

Son_of_dad,

A lot of older black people are super conservative, many are single issue voters. Sadly they will gladly vote for the side that hates them, so long as that side opposes abortions, or vaccines or whatever they are against this year.

K1nsey6,
@K1nsey6@lemmy.world avatar

As opposed to the side that tokenize their community for votes then tosses them back to the curb when they are no longer useful?

Touching_Grass,

Maybe its because people keep saying the Republicans hate them and then they come to find out that its not true. But also lots of minorities are very conservative in their beliefs. Plus Democrats and the left are very abrasive. Like saying the entire Republican party hates black people.

JokeDeity,

Yeah, fuck off with that. The conservatives I’ve talked to that loudly and proudly proclaim their various bigotries as badges of honor are far too many to count.

dragonflyteaparty,

So what policies do Republicans have or implement that help POC?

Touching_Grass,

Do they need laws for POC just to appear like they’re not racist.

I’ve seen plenty of people that think laws specifically based on race is infantilizing.

GentlemanLoser,

Oh honey, don’t

Bo7a,

No you haven’t. Why lie about such a stupid thing?

Touching_Grass,

Being aggressively wrong is reddit shit.

youtu.be/hjbCS4c3Kk8?feature=shared

Bo7a,

I’m not clicking that unless you tell me it is a video of you talking to people who are arguing that laws infantilized them.

Touching_Grass,

Be better. This is foolish bullshit

K1nsey6,
@K1nsey6@lemmy.world avatar

We can all name lots of policies Democrats have implemented that do not help POC. Crime bill, welfare reform, war on drugs, private prisons with quotas, upholding systemic racism and the white supremacists ideology. It was built on. Democrats loved a tokenize the black community for their own benefit. Which is why the DNC is now pushing for millennials to support the party because Many in the black community have come to the conclusion the Democrats do not represent their interests

treefrog,

you didn’t answer the question and just whatabouted all over it instead

K1nsey6,
@K1nsey6@lemmy.world avatar

You mean the way you whatabouted the comment you replied to?

IHaveTwoCows,

Who do white supremacists stump for?

Which party does the Klan support?

Why are the Proud Boys’ and Oarh Keepers’ leaders and members in prison?

Why did conservatives defect to the Republican Party after the Civil Rights Act passed?

Hey, I’m just asking questions! Legitimate questions!

Touching_Grass,

Yea, you’re not wrong. But doesn’t disprove what I said.

treefrog,

It kinda does.

KevonLooney,

No they’re not. Black people vote +90% for Democrats, even if they’re conservative. Years of hard experience has given them the ability to see through lots of bullshit.

The ones who vote Republican are always the craziest and most self-centered people. Ones who love tax cuts above everything. Herman Cain died of Covid and his family made him keep tweeting. How craven can you be?

thehill.com/…/514440-herman-cain-account-tweets-c…

Armen12,

It’s about 70% that vote democrat but that doesn’t correlate to election day, turnout rate is another story. No one bothers showing up for mid-terms

KevonLooney,

This comment is 100% wrong. All research and election results show that +90% of black people vote Democratic, and they have high turnout (even in midterms). It’s like you just made everything up and don’t even remember black voters delivering 2 Democratic Senators in GA.

Just 6% of Black registered voters said they would back the Republican candidate in the race to represent their district in the House of Representatives.

Black eligible voters stand out for their relatively high voter turnout rates

pewresearch.org/…/key-facts-about-black-eligible-…

Black voters continued to support Democrats by overwhelming margins: 93% voted for Democrats in the midterms while 5% supported Republicans. This is similar to levels of support in 2020, 2018 and 2016.

pewresearch.org/…/voting-patterns-in-the-2022-ele…

Armen12,

“In an August 2022 Pew Research Center survey, 70% of Black registered voters said they would vote for or were leaning to the Democratic U.S. House candidate in their district in the coming election. Another 24% were either unsure or said they would back another candidate”

What did I say wrong, it’s literally in the article you posted

KevonLooney,

Oh, I see you can’t admit you’re wrong about anything. Watch, I’m going to show you again and you will misinterpret it again because your beliefs are rooted in desire, not fact.

You said:

It’s about 70% that vote democrat but that doesn’t correlate to election day

In the 2022 midterms, 93% voted for Democrats.

You said:

turnout rate is another story. No one bothers showing up for mid-terms

In reality, “Black eligible voters stand out for their relatively high turnout rates.”

Armen12,

brookings.edu/…/new-voter-turnout-data-from-2022-…

“Perhaps the most notable finding with respect to voter turnout is that 2022 turnout rates were nearly as high as the record-setting 2018 midterm turnout rates. Yet unlike the previous midterm elections, the groups with the highest Democratic voting margins—in particular, young people, Black Americans, women, and white female college graduates—did not show greater turnout increases than other groups, and often displayed lower turnout rates than in the 2018 midterms. These groups displayed higher turnout rates than in the low-turnout 2014 midterms, but either did not match or did not improve on their 2018 turnout levels. And only a minority of states registered turnout increases between 2018 and 2022, while an even smaller number showed increases among young and nonwhite voters”

treefrog,

Whether the recent decrease in turnout for these largely Democratic-leaning groups was due to a waning interest in the 2022 midterms or other factors such as state-imposed restrictions that could lead to longer-term voter suppression of these groups remains to be seen.

From your same article.

Also the article mentions the states with the sharpest declines and they’re red as fuck so it’s very likely voter suppression is a major contributing factor in the statistics you’re using.

Armen12,

I don’t doubt it, I wasn’t arguing for the reasons why voter turnout is low

freeindv,

Woah there racist

Dkarma,

Are you white?

Nougat,

Crazy isn't racist.

vanontom,
@vanontom@lemmy.world avatar

Wealth, probably. I would guess someone like that lives and works in a well-insulated bubble of whiteness that now feels like home to him. He now basically identifies as white, unless it’s convenient not to. The guy probably believes that racism is not a modern problem, bootstraps, etc.

Pratai,

There should be a re-election. My god American political law is fucked.

cloud_herder,

What a chode.

IHaveTwoCows,

Where are all the 2A chads in Texas, sworn to fight against government tyranny?

GiddyGap,

If you switch parties, it should be an automatic special election to be reelected.

ILikeBoobies,

I don’t see why, people vote for the candidate not the party

And it’s fairly evident that parties aren’t a single voting block

Krauerking,

I agree that people should be voting for person not color and doing so is quite the failing at most Americans consideration towards politics…

But unfortunately party lines does still in fact matter a lot. Nominations can still only be done by them and certain blanket funds go towards party specific nominees no matter what so he has essentially stolen money from people who donated to a party not person.

I’d say it should trigger a vote of confidence for the general populace but not necessarily immediately new elections and he may still be open to lawsuits if there was intent he knew what he was doing running in a party he didn’t agree with.

SpezBroughtMeHere,

And here’s the mentality that comes with voting for teams. Government isn’t a team sport. Stop being the problem.

IHaveTwoCows,

But fraud is

A_Random_Idiot,

If you campaign as X for X.

Then as soon as you win, you change to Y.

Thats a fundamental fraud against the voters, and 100% deserves a special election… Especially since he could have easily changed his party BEFORE the election, or after his term was up.

Theres nothing tribal about it.

ILikeBoobies,

Changing parties doesn’t effect his policies

WorldWideLem,

It doesn’t necessarily have to, but then you have someone like Trisha Cotham in NC who switched parties to give the GOP a veto-proof majority and has been voting with them in lockstep ever since.

If they weren’t planning on acting as Republicans they could just as easily become independents.

Baines,

bullshit

ILikeBoobies,

So had he stayed D, he would in no way vote R?

ASeriesOfPoorChoices,

Parties define policies, basically.

ILikeBoobies,

Do you feel as though him staying a D would have meant he would continue to vote D instead of just voting R?

ASeriesOfPoorChoices,

Huh? He’s a mayor, not a senator. The only voting R/D he does is as a private citizen, just like us.

Mayors vote on city policies, which are unlabelled, but you can still categorise laws based on what they do.

ILikeBoobies,

I’ll rephrase for you

As mayor, do you think the way he votes will change based on the party he’s apart of

ASeriesOfPoorChoices,

“voting”… ignoring your limited concept and moving on:

Do I think that changing parties will change the sort of people who will vote for him next election?

Yes.

Do I think that the sort of actions which would make him a favourable candidate to his voters are different to those of his previous voters?

Yes.

Do I think he will take those sorts of actions?

Logic dictates… yes.

Pratai,

I guarantee you it does.

Case,

I came to, apparently, agree with you. My exact thought.

This is clearly a trick to get into power, and we all know Republicans love power before anything else. Morals, the children, the budget, actual constitutionally protected rights, etc.

lennybird,
@lennybird@lemmy.world avatar

What a dumbass. However I wish the Republican defectors like Cheney, Kinzinger, Romney, or pash ones like Flake or McCain etc… Had the spine to flip to Democrat…

jeffw,

All of those people are/were super conservative. Being anti-Trump doesn’t make you a dem

jasondj,

Democrats are the big tent party. The more the republicans shift to the far right, the more the tent expands to pick up the ones that stayed behind.

The far right movement will only shift the Democratic Party to the right to pick up the stragglers, not make it any more left.

K1nsey6,
@K1nsey6@lemmy.world avatar

Democrats are only interested in picking up Republicans, while they punch left. It’s like they are fighting to become the dominant conservative party

IHaveTwoCows,

Democrats are not Big Tent; they are center-right tent.

jeffw,

And in other countries, random coalitions combine to form a coalition govt. in the USA, random coalitions combine to form a party. It doesn’t mean progressives won’t continue to gain ground as they have been.

But let’s be clear, Cheney, Flake, and most of the others mentioned are on the right flank of the GOP. Their only redeeming quality is being anti-Trump because they don’t want their party to be unpopular.

curiousaur,

They aren’t defectors, they’re just the real Republicans.

foggy,

Not anymore they’re not. Times change, people change, parties change.

What a real Republican is, today, is a traitor. Nothing more than a casualty to the cold war.

It’s why these so-called (former) real Republicans are leaving.

A_Random_Idiot,

I mean, thats what conservatives have always been.

They just stopped being subtle about it after Obama’s win.

foggy,

That’s a glib interpretation of history at best.

Perhaps since Reagan would be somewhat accurate.

Chetzemoka,

These people are so fucking selfish. You were hired as a public servant, you should serve the people who elected you

MyUnclesSecret,

Maybe we shoukd vote for people’s platforms and not a political party. Rank choice perhaps…

K1nsey6,
@K1nsey6@lemmy.world avatar

You meant the type of RCV that Dems are suing to keep off the ballots in DC and Alexandria VA?

mjhelto,

I keep seeing this said on these sort of posts, like the average voter has anything to do with the voting system being used or has the power to change it. Those with the power to change would never change the voting method. They would almost assuredly gain nothing and lose almost everything.

This isn’t a direct rag in you, personally. I just don’t know how to expect the wolves to accept the addition of other predators in the hen house. Obviously, it takes a unified electorate to get change like this via elected officials with simple goals and they’ve spent the last several decades hyping up wedge issues for people to fight each other over that no one could ignore those things to vote and push for a change to the national voting method.

Just like the president not having the power that the electorate believes them to have, I’m just too cynical, now, to expect anything positive to change before I die of cancer from some shitty corporation that wants to cut corners to add some zeros to their bank accounts.

IHaveTwoCows,

The only thing that will bring positive change is violence, but people are too comfy for that. I suggest that everyone give up on the idea of living in a free society because fascism is curbstomping their lives and they have no intention of fighting back

Krauerking,

I think we will be remembered poorly in history as yet another civilization that did nothing while terrible things happened.

“First the came for the weak and I did not care cause I had a smartphone”

AfricanExpansionist,

“vote blue no matter who”

No, vote for the most progressive candidate or don’t give them your vote

cogneato,

$$$

FarceMultiplier,
@FarceMultiplier@lemmy.ca avatar

₽₽₽

SeaJ,

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.

Dallas has a terrible violent crime rate. Looks like fighting against defunding police did jack shit for them.

IHaveTwoCows,

Fighting rising crime through government violence instead of socioeconomic improvement is always a winning strategy that never has any down sides, as we have learned through every distopic scifi novel and film ever

Cethin,

It likely did do something. Things are probably worse.

JokeDeity,

I think that just means Dallas elected another Republican.

Illuminostro,

Somebody got a bribe of some sort.

ikapoz,

Not necessarily. He might just be greedy for a bigger job in Texas policy. If he can throw the brown shirts a little victory without it costing him reelection that could get him enough currency for them to want to support him for higher office.

Cynical exercise of power for personal gain is not illegal so far as I know.

BigMacHole,

Are we taking bets on whether or not there’s some sexual assault or corruption allegations surfacing soon and he knew only the Republican Party would protect him from that?

draneceusrex,

OMG! I’d put money on it. Is there a remind me bot here on Lemmy?

yip-bonk,
yip-bonk avatar

I dunno, I don’t think it’s right to defecate to another party. That’s nasty.

player1,

Defecate

PatFussy,

Why? Are people not allowed to change their mind?

IHaveTwoCows,

Sure. He should step down immediately to be consistent. A Republican lost the race, there fore he is illegitimate.

Rootiest,

Politicians are supposed to follow the will of their constituents.

His responsibility is to the people. Of course he can change his mine, but he should still do his job for the people who elected him and if that is contrary to his own beliefs to the point where he is unable to do so then he should resign.

BassTurd,

He was elected to represent the people that voted for him based on the beliefs he carried. If those beliefs significantly change to the point that he no longer represents the people that elected him, he should resign.

PatFussy,

Serious question, what if he didnt change his opinions but only party affiliation. He still acted as he would have as a mayor and he still gave the people what they wanted… just change of title. Like what if he thought his style of politics belongs on the other eisle and people are so partisan that they think he switched everything.

klemptor,

In that case I’d wonder why he ever was a Democrat in the first place. I’m not sure how realistic a scenario that is, especially given the public announcement he felt the need to make.

jeffw,

woosh

Maybe reread the comment lol

PatFussy,

Ah shit lol i didnt even notice

JokeDeity,

Ah shit

bitsplease,

The job of an elected representative isn’t to do what they want, it’s to represent the people who elected them. The people elected a Democrat as a mayor, and no they have a republican one.

The two parties operate on fundamentally different platforms, so I don’t see how he can both switch parties and stay true to what he promised voters when he was elected

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