Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson’s riveting insights about a black man’s journey to being a Republican
Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, a one-time Democrat and now a Republican, spoke on a podcast with Senator Ted Cruz and Ben Ferguson (a talk show/radio host) about what led to Johnson’s decision to abandon the political party of his culture, his youth, and most of his political life. I’ve got to say that this was one of the fastest hour-long interviews I’ve ever heard. Every Republican should pay attention to what Johnson has to say about the black-Democrat party nexus.
Johnson has multiple degrees (Harvard undergrad, Penn law school, Princeton masters), as well has having served in the Texas legislature before becoming Dallas’s mayor. It’s not the credentials, though, that are impressive. It’s his values and accomplishments.
Unlike every other Democrat city leader, during the BLM/Defund the Police movement, Johnson refused to defund his city’s police. When his reelection rolled around in May 2023, the city of Dallas sent him back to the mayor’s office with a 98.7% vote (93% if one counts write-ins, which technically don’t count). Dallasites love him because he’s actually working to make the city more livable.
Image: Eric Johnson. YouTube screen grab.
It's becoming more common for a hugely competent Democrat politician who looks at the people’s needs rather than his political party’s demands to come out as a Republican. During this fascinating podcast, Johnson spoke about the forces driving his decision.
He explained that he grew up in a poor but intact two-parent home that was deeply religious. His values were traditional, emphasizing hard work, responsibility, and respect for the law. Inevitably, these values ran headlong into a Democrat party that insists on externalizing all blame for negative behaviors and outcomes (and, effectively, denying all true praise for positive behaviors and outcomes). Thus, Johnson explained,
How things turn out for you in this country are largely determined by things that are outside of your control. The race you’re born, the neighborhood you’re born in. It just kind of…it excuses away your failures, and it excuses away your success to to something that’s out of your control. If you’re successful and you’re a white male, well, it’s because, of course, you are. And if you’re unsuccessful in African America, it’s because the deck was stacked against you. And I just wasn’t a person who ever believed that. And that wasn’t how I was raised, and that’s not what I was taught, but it was the overarching political philosophy of my party.
Johnson’s personal experience was antithetical to the Democrat message: If he worked hard, he had good outcomes proportionate to his efforts.
Nevertheless, Johnson was a Democrat because, as he says, “you sort of inherit the Democratic Party as a culture heirloom when you’re African American in this country,” with the party being “part of who you are.” Indeed, he says that had he left Christianity entirely, he would have gotten fewer distraught and panicked phone calls than he did when he went public with his changed political affiliation.
Johnson also noticed that, no matter what Democrats say, blacks are, for the most part, doing incredibly well in modern America. It’s been a good country for them. When Democrats complain about how awful America is, and he suggests that they relocate somewhere better, they fall silent. They know that there’s nothing better. But black children are being taught that they are in a perpetual dead end and that no amount of effort matters.
What Johnson and Cruz also spoke about was the incredible damage the Democrat party causes by being so “compassionate” for the poor that it deprives them of the opportunity to learn, work, and achieve. People who are not responsible for their lives can never rise above poverty.
From the beginning of his political career, Johnson also clashed with fellow Democrats when he called out ballot harvesting (and stealing) targeting old people. He called it “the voter fraud that happens in our large cities in Texas…” Still, he was a party man.
That all changed when he became Dallas’s mayor and had direct responsibility for people’s well-being, unlike the diffuse responsibility of a legislator. That’s why he refused to defund Dallas’s police—something the party resented, and Republicans called him to praise. He stuck to that even when protesters were essentially camped on his lawn. They were fearless because they’re now the heart of the party.
One of the things that distressed Johnson was how Democrats frame patently harmful policies in words of love. E.g., maintaining a police presence in black neighborhoods wasn’t about protecting the majority of blacks who are law-abiding citizens but was about perpetuating racial cruelty while trying to slow city spending, a burden that falls hard on working-class homeowners who pay the property taxes funding cities, cruelly deprives the poor of welfare services. But behind the ostensibly loving rhetoric, Johnson saw Democrat policies endangering the poor and impoverishing the working classes.
There’s much more (mine is a very superficial summary), but Johnson’s conclusion was important: It’s logical for Republicans to ignore black communities because they’re so entrenched with the Democrat party. However, the effort is worth it because all politics are ultimately local. As more Americans move to the cities, if Democrats control those cities, that ultimately affects federal politics because it shifts entire states to the blue column. Republicans must tell blacks that conservative policies will make cities safer and more prosperous and give inner-city children schools that teach them skills rather than teaching them to be weak.
You can listen to the podcast on Google, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify (and probably on your preferred platform, too). Just search for Ted Cruz’s “The Verdict.”