Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson Will Have
to Take Sides on Paxton with Switch
Capitol Inside
September 22, 2023
Impeachment winner Attorney General Ken Paxton beat GOP Speaker Dade Phelan to the punch on Friday when Texas Republican leaders rolled out the red carpet for Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson in the wake of his defection to the GOP after a career in the Texas House for nine years as a Democrat.
But it was close. Paxton congratulated Johnson on the party switch in a post at 10:32 a.m. on X. Phelan welcomed to the mayor to the Republican fold on X page at 10:45 a.m. - seven minutes after the attorney general struck first. Governor Greg Abbott announced Johnson's flip to the Republicans at 11:04 a.m. on X. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick took his time - waiting until 1:16 p.m. before he cheered Johnson's conversion to the Texas majority party.
The rapid response to Johnson's party switch by a pair of bitter enemies illuminated the first major challenge that the mayor can expect as a newfound Republican with the need to declare sides on the House's failed impeachment bid before he ever can be considered an authentic member of the GOP.
All of the elected Republicans at the state level have been compelled to take a position in a jugular-devouring clash between the top Texas lawyer and the fellow GOP leader who tried and failed to take him down. Johnson will discover there's no middle ground any more in the Republican Party. You're either for or against the attorney general.
Johnson served with both Paxton and Phelan in the Texas House at different times as a Democrat who represented an inner-city district near downtown during a stint that ended with his initial election as mayor in 2019.
But he could hurt himself if tries to ride a fence that no longer exists in the volcanic aftermath of the impeachment that ended with Paxton's acquittal and Phelan's fiery condemnation of Senate Republicans for refusing to endorse an impeachment case that the House GOP leaders thrust on them, failed to check for flaws or to prove as a consequence.
Johnson will have to choose between the speaker and 59 colleagues who've put themselves in danger by voting with their leader. He would see a lot of familiar faces in Phelan's corner after House Democrats voted with a speaker's team that Paxton plans to target in 2024 with help from Donald Trump, activists on the right and the conservative base. That could be like waltzing into flames.
Johnson could make his debut in the GOP on the winning side if he picks Paxton over Phelan - and the AG would love to see that happen as a result of the unique characteristics that the mayor brings to his adopted party. Johnson for starters may have the highest IQ in the Texas GOP as a Harvard graduate who earned a law degree at the University of Pennsylvania and a masters at Princeton.
Johnson compiled a relatively liberal voting record in the House. The other Democratic lawmakers who made the leap were closer to the political than Johnson when they switched. All have become decidedly more conservative like Johnson can expect to be if the move is the springboard for another political campaign. Politicians rarely bolt from one party to the other if the move isn't opportunistic.
But Johnson is Black - which puts him in a tiny minority in his new party. That could be a double-edge sword in a primary. But Johnson's votes in the past won't matter much in the eyes of the state's top leaders who understand the GOP's desperate need for minorities.
Paxton and Phelan both would love to have an early alliance with the former colleague. The two are bitter enemies in a full-scale civil war in the GOP that House GOP leaders ignited and fueled with the foiled impeachment. The eventual decision could make or break any hopes for going anywhere in the GOP.
Johnson has almost four years left on a second term that will be his last due to limits there on mayors. Johnson could be angling for a race for Congress or a position on the GOP statewide ticket in 2026. Or he could have an eye on a possible appointment from Abbott or something else beyond another political campaign.
Here's what the elders in Johnson's party had to say about his emergence in a Wall Street Journal op-ed as one of them.
"Texas is getting more Red every day," Abbott said this afternoon on X. "Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson switches to Republican Party. He’s pro law enforcement & won’t tolerate leftist agendas. Two of the 10 largest cities in America now have Republican Mayors & they are both in Texas."
"My very good friend Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson announced he is switching to the Republican Party," Patrick said in an X post a couple of hours before Abbott chimed in. "He's a good man. Welcome to our party,"
But Paxton got the best of Phelan again when he saluted Johnson's entry into the GOP at a time this morning when the speaker was still working on his.
"To my friend and former colleague, welcome to the Republican Party!" Phelan said on X. "Mayor @Johnson4Dallas is absolutely right. Conservative policies are the key to safe, thriving, and successful cities. His leadership is a shining example of that. Great news."
But Paxton have posted his several minutes sooner because he kept the message economical with the need for fluffy rhetoric. "Welcome, Mayor," Paxton tweeted.
Beyond the rah-rah and social media welcome mats, Democrats may see Johnson as a traitor who's joined a party that Donald Trump owns for all practical purpose as a former president to overturn the democratic American election in 2020 with lies on voter fraud. Johnson will have to come to terms with the fact that Trump sought to overturn the country with the insurrection that he orchestrated at the U.S. power - a topic that his fellow Republicans never mention but cannot forget about.
more to come ...
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