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.
Maybe we shoukd vote for people’s platforms and not a political party. Rank choice perhaps…
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.
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I think we will be remembered poorly in history as yet another civilization that did nothing while terrible things happened.
“vote blue no matter who”
No, vote for the most progressive candidate or don’t give them your vote
You meant the type of RCV that Dems are suing to keep off the ballots in DC and Alexandria VA?