Dallas mayor defects from Democrats to GOP citing crime, fiscal policies

"[M]any of our cities are in disarray. Mayors and other local elected officials have failed to make public safety a priority or to exercise fiscal restraint," he said.

By Ben Whedon

Published: September 22, 2023 4:42pm

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson on Friday announced a switch to the Republican Party, marking the latest high-profile defection from the Democrats to the GOP this year.

"Today I am changing my party affiliation. 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," he announced in the Wall Street Journal.

Motivating his switch were disputes with his party of crime policies.

"[M]any of our cities are in disarray. Mayors and other local elected officials have failed to make public safety a priority or to exercise fiscal restraint," he said, before chastising his party leaders for viewing cities as "laboratories for liberalism."

Johnson's flip to the Republicans is not the first such defection, even in the Lone Star State. In August of this year, Kleberg County Attorney Kira Talip Sanchez joined the Republicans, citing "the GOP’s policies of law and order protecting safety, and backing the blue."

In March of this year, Louisiana state Rep. Francis Thompson joined the Republicans, handing the GOP a supermajority in the state legislature.

A similar development followed in April, when North Carolina state Rep. Tricia Cotham joined the GOP and handed the party a supermajority in the Old North State.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.