Dallas mayor abandons Democrat Party to join the Republicans

Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News via AP, Pool

Eric Johnson, the Mayor of Dallas, one of the most populous cities in the United States, has declared his departure from the Democratic Party to join the Republicans.

The announcement was made in an op-ed published on Friday in The Wall Street Journal under the headline "America’s Cities Need Republicans, and I’m Becoming One," Fox News reports.

Johnson stated that his decision to switch allegiance was motivated by a belief that "the future of America’s great urban centers depends on the willingness of the nation’s mayors to champion law and order and practice fiscal conservatism."

"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.

"In other words, American cities need Republicans — and Republicans need American cities," he added. "When my political hero Theodore Roosevelt was born, only 20% of Americans lived in urban areas. By the time he was elected president, that share had doubled to 40%. Today, it stands at 80%. As America’s cities go, so goes America."

In February, Mayor Johnson shared a Fox News Digital article via social media that detailed a mass exodus of police officers from Austin, attributing their departure to diminished morale stemming from funding cuts. He seized the opportunity to invite these officers to relocate and serve in Dallas.

"When you have a mayor who supports the police not only in his words but his actions, you see what happens to crime in your city," Austin Police Retired Officers Association Dennis Farris told Fox News Digital on Friday.

"Mayor Johnson has led from the front and it showed when he was re-elected without one single challenger — that’s unheard of in a major U.S. city."