Surprise, Dallas Voters, The Democratic Mayor You Elected Is A Republican Now!
Another corrupt bait-and-switch.
Dallas is a liberal stronghold in Texas. Sixty-five percent of its voters backed Joe Biden in the 2020 election. Just 20 percent of residents are registered Republicans, but it’s not impossible for a Republican to serve as mayor in the majority-minority city. All they have to do is first get elected as a Democrat, like Mayor Eric Johnson.
Johnson has been mayor since 2019 and prior to that, he served as a Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives from 2010 to 2019. He represented District 100, which is also majority-minority and so overwhelmingly Democratic no Republican bothers running.
The mayoral election was held in May, but Johnson is only now getting around to telling people he’s actually a Republican. In fairness, the delay is probably because he was so busy enacting a fraud on the Dallas electorate. The summer can get away from you.
Dallas is now the largest US city with a Republican mayor, but that distinction is like if I changed my name to Hugh Jackman. That doesn’t legitimately make me Wolverine.
Johnson, who’s Black, announced his party switch in, fittingly enough, The Wall Street Journal. His Benedict Arnold manifesto is titled “America’s Cities Need Republicans, and I’m Becoming One.” He claims that “while Dallas has thrived, elsewhere Democratic policies have exacerbated crime and homelessness.” He’s joined the Legion of Doom Republican Party so he can find “common-sense solutions” to political differences,” promote “fiscal conservatism,” and impose “law and order.” I’d respect him more if he’d just gone full Scientology.
“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,” Johnson wrote, seemingly ignoring that Republicans worship at the altar of felony indictment collector Donald Trump. Just last week, Texas Republicans let dirtbag Attorney General Ken Paxton skate on 20 impeachment counts ranging from securities fraud to obstruction of justice.
Paxton was the first to welcome Johnson to Corruption Incorporated. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott also crowed over Johnson’s party switch.
Texas is getting more Red every day. Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson switches to Republican Party. He’s pro law enforcement & won’t tolerate leftist agendas. Two of the 10 largest cities in America now have Republican Mayors & they are both in Texas.
Texas is in fact not “getting more red.” (In 2012, Mitt Romney defeated Barack Obama by 1.2 million votes, but Trump carried the state in 2020 by just more than 600,000.) Johnson would never have won in Dallas as an actual Republican. Still, if the 47-year-old wants to win statewide elections, such as for Senate or governor, that’s probably easier as a Republican with Republican connections. He might not seem MAGA enough right now to survive a Republican primary, but he’s proven how changeable he can be.
Democrats should’ve smelled something rotten when Johnson invited Republican Senator John Cornyn and podcaster Ted Cruz to the Dallas City Council inauguration earlier this year. Johnson was personally sworn in by Cornyn.
These recent party switches from Democrats in North Carolina, Georgia, and now Texas are especially galling when you consider that so many lifelong Republicans, including Bill Kristol, have officially cut ties with the party.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams is also an example of a conservative “law and order” Democrat in a “liberal” city. He’s annoying but at least he’s not willingly sharing space with Ted Cruz.
Johnson hopping on the fascist bandwagon at this stage, while glibly parroting Romney-era rightwing talking points, is just pathetic. But every politician has their price, we guess. Johnson’s just comes pretty cheap.
[Texas Public Radio / Wall Street Journal]
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I've said this ad nauseam of this bait and switch parties. This is going to hinder Ds. The billions behind this is from Project 2025 a 'conservative' manifesto that is 920 pages long in getting this entire country into a theocracy with their slaves back into submission. I am so fucking sick and tired of being lied to I want to rip my own hair out.
"In his opinion piece, Johnson said he believes mayors and elected officials have failed cities around the nation by not making public safety a priority. His most recent campaign was heavily geared toward reducing violent crime in the city."
Examples? Because I have plenty of counter examples FFS...starting with Los Angeles' Karen Bass, who is working her ass off to get homeless people off the street & combat crime FFS:
https://www.npr.org/2023/04/22/1171476809/los-angeles-mayor-karen-bass-on-addressing-homelessness