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.
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.
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?
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
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
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/10/12/key-facts-about-black-eligible-voters-in-2022/
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.
https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/07/12/voting-patterns-in-the-2022-elections/
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.
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
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.
