Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson suggested that his move to leave the Democratic Party last fall should have served as an early warning that a political reckoning was coming for the party of his youth.
Many political pundits were stunned when President-elect Donald Trump led Republicans to sweeping wins earlier this month, breaking apart traditionally Democratic coalitions to clinch a second term and secure majorities in the House and Senate.
The red wave didn’t shock Johnson, however, who said during a Fox and Friends appearance this week that “it turns out I was kind of a canary in the coal mine.”
“I didn’t think I was going to be some anomaly that everyone needed to worry about,” he said. “I thought that I was going to be a harbinger of things to come.”
On Fox & Friends @Johnson4Dallas discussed how @GOP mayors across the country are excited to work with @realDonaldTrump to deliver on the promise of making our cities great again. pic.twitter.com/BsMaQuJbNg
— Republican Mayors Association (@GOPMayorsAssn) November 20, 2024
Johnson governed one of the largest cities in the country as a Democrat for over four years before shocking colleagues by joining Trump’s MAGA movement. Citing desires to use conservative principles to restore urban centers like his own back to glory, the mayor said that too often, Democratic policies “exacerbate homelessness, coddle criminals, and make it harder for ordinary people to make a living.”
In the months leading up to the election, Trump received sharp criticism for saying Democrats had destroyed former manufacturing bastions and big cities like Detroit and Milwaukee. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) was one such critic who claimed his comments about Detroit represented an attack on the city’s residents.
But long a proponent for urban revitalization, Johnson said that Trump’s message on the campaign trail about restoring decaying cities to greatness resonated with voters, including many inner city minority voters traditionally in the Democratic camp.
“Donald Trump won more votes in our urban areas than any Republican has in God knows how long, and that is because they really believed in what he said on the campaign trail, that we can actually do this, and that the Republican Party shouldn’t give up on our cities,” he said.
“Donald Trump has given the Republican Party a gift, and that gift is he has caused parts of the Democratic coalition that people thought would never, ever consider voting Republican to do exactly that,” Johnson added.
Trump grew support statewide in Texas by over 4 percentage points since 2020, and expanded support in urban areas across the Lone Star State by 4 percentage points since 2020, according to NBC exit polls. Trump also gained support from black voters, while Hispanic support for the president-elect in Texas was up a staggering 14 percentage points from 2020.
In Johnson’s hometown of Dallas, Trump made gains of nearly 5 percentage points.
Johnson said the data represented “an opportunity for the Republican Party to double down on his [Trump’s] message, which is primarily in our cities, which is where 80% of our American population resides and where a large percent of our ethnic minorities live.”
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He expressed optimism that the GOP could cement Trump’s coalition as long as it follows through on an “agenda for urban America.”
“That agenda needs to center around making our cities safe again, supporting our police departments, funding them adequately, needs to focus on creating more opportunity, economic opportunity,” he said. “All the things that people have been asking for for generations from our cities that have been under Democratic leadership that have failed to deliver on those things.”
