The Democratic party is losing one of its big-city mayors. Eric Johnson, the mayor of Dallas, Texas, announced in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on Friday that he is switching parties and “will leave office as a Republican.”

Johnson started his essay in the WSJ by citing a few of his strongest policies while serving as a Democratic mayor for four years: making the city safer, standing up against calls to defund the police, “lower taxes and a friendlier business climate.” He also stated that while he wants to change his party affiliation, his “approach is working,” so he doesn’t plan on changing the way he operates. But that said, he explained: “I don’t believe I can stay on the sidelines any longer.”

Johnson wrote:

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.

In other words, American cities need Republicans — and Republicans need American cities. 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.

Unfortunately, many of our cities are in disarray. Mayors and other local elected officials have failed to make public safety a priority or to exercise fiscal restraint. Most of these local leaders are proud Democrats who view cities as laboratories for liberalism rather than as havens for opportunity and free enterprise.

Too often, local tax dollars are spent on policies that exacerbate homelessness, coddle criminals and make it harder for ordinary people to make a living. And too many local Democrats insist on virtue signaling — proposing half-baked government programs that aim to solve every single societal ill — and on finding new ways to thumb their noses at Republicans at the state or federal level. Enough. This makes for good headlines, but not for safer, stronger, more vibrant cities.

Despite also saying he will be voting in the Republican primary in the spring, Johnson said he will uphold his promise to voters that he will not publicly endorse a candidate of a specific political party: “This is about promoting policies and principles, not personalities and politicians.”

Read the full op-ed at the Wall Street Journal.

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