Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson speaks to these congregated throughout the funeral Mass for Dallas Police Officer Jacob Arellano at St. Paul Catholic Church in Richardson, Texas, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2022. Johnson stated Friday, Sept. 22, 2023, that he’s switching political events, making the town the most important within the nation led by a GOP mayor. Credit score: AP/Tom Fox
AUSTIN, Texas — Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson introduced Friday that he’s switching to the Republican Occasion, making the town the most important within the U.S. to be led by a GOP mayor.
Though mayoral places of work in Texas are nonpartisan, the swap is a lift for Texas Republicans who’ve been shedding floor across the state’s main cities for greater than a decade. Johnson was elected mayor in 2019 after serving greater than a decade as a Democrat within the Texas Home of Representatives.
Making the announcement in an editorial within the Wall Avenue Journal, Johnson stated he was by no means a favourite of Democrats within the Capitol and referred to as on mayors to champion “legislation and order” and financial conservatism.
“That is hardly a crimson wave. However it’s clear that the nation and its cities have reached a time for selecting,” Johnson wrote. “And the overwhelming majority of Individuals who name our cities residence should have actual selections—not ‘progressive’ echo chambers—at metropolis corridor.”
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott shortly welcomed Johnson into the get together. The mayor of neighboring Fort Price, Mattie Parker, can be a Republican, giving Texas two of the nation’s largest cities with GOP leaders.
“Texas is getting extra Crimson each day,” Abbott posted on X, the social media platform previously often known as Twitter.
Johnson is in his second and last time period as mayor, which runs by way of 2027. As a state lawmaker, Johnson made headlines over his profitable efforts to take away a plaque within the Texas Capitol that rejected slavery as an underlying reason for the Civil Warfare. His push on the time often put Johnson and Abbott in battle over discussions to take away the marker.
Texas Democratic Occasion expressed an absence of shock within the swap.
“However the voters of Dallas deserved to know the place he stood earlier than he ran for reelection as Mayor,” the get together stated in an announcement. “He wasn’t sincere together with his constituents, and knew he would lose to a Democrat if he flipped earlier than the election.”
Throughout his mayoral run, Johnson has embraced insurance policies denounced by Democrats elsewhere in Texas, together with utilizing state troopers to police cities.