Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, who changed his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican last year, explained his decision to change during an appearance on Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's podcast.
Johnson detailed his early life growing up in a working-class family that focused on faith during a Monday episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz.
"I think I was always politically in a weird posture with the Democratic Party, because at its core — and I didn’t understand this at the very beginning," Johnson said. "You sort of inherit the Democratic Party as a cultural heirloom, when you’re African American in this country, it sort of gets handed to you, as part of who you are.”
The Dallas mayor said he had received more phone calls from people distraught over his decision to join the Republican Party than he would have if he decided to leave his faith.
“At the Democratic Party’s core, as I was saying, is a belief that 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 excuses away your failures and excuses away your successes to something that’s out of your control,” he continued. “If you’re successful and you're white males, it’s because, of course you were. And if you’re unsuccessful as an African American ... the deck was stacked against you."
"I just wasn’t a person who ever believed that. And that wasn’t how I was raised. And it’s not what I was taught. But it was the overarching political philosophy of my party," Johnson added.
“The winning formula ends up being exactly what the conservative ideology would tell you,” Johnson continued. “It has to do with taking upon yourself the responsibility for yourself, and not believing that the Democratic party or any party is there to save you. And the Democratic Party wants you to believe you can’t get there without them.”
Last September, Johnson announced he was joining the Republican Party in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal.
“When my career in elected office ends in 2027 on the inauguration of my successor as mayor, I will leave office as a Republican," the Dallas mayor wrote, saying he would vote in the Republican primary this spring.
Johnson insisted "American cities need Republicans" and "Republicans need American cities."
The Dallas mayor also cited former President Theodore Roosevelt as his political hero, noting only 20% of Americans lived in urban areas during his presidency. “By the time he was elected president, that share had doubled to 40 percent,” he wrote. “Today, it stands at 80%. As America’s cities go, so goes America.”
