Dallas mayor abandons Democrat Party over defund the police 'nonsense,' says Black communities want safety

The mayor of Dallas, Texas is calling out the "culture of lawlessness" in Democrat-run cities after announcing he is switching his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican.

Mayor Eric Johnson joined "FOX & Friends" in an exclusive interview that aired Friday to detail why he believes the Democrat Party has abandoned the Black community with their anti-law enforcement agenda.

"Very soon after the whole defund the police nonsense started, activists showed up at my house trying to intentionally scare my family and scare my children, scare me into changing my very, very clear position that we were not going to do that in Dallas," Johnson told host Lawrence Jones. "That really was sort of the eye-opener in terms of this party is really serious about protecting the criminal element over the law-abiding folks and that they weren't really going to change."

"I grew up in the streets. I know actually what the people over there want, they told me what they want. They want to live in a safe neighborhood and they don't want the police to leave. They want more police. They want those police to be trained well. They want them to be practitioners of community policing, but they want them there. They didn't want the police department defended. If I felt like you could actually be a true law and order fiscally responsible Democrat, I would have done that. I tried that… I'm living proof that you end up on an island isolated in that part."

DALLAS MAYOR LEAVES DEMOCRATIC PARTY, SWITCHES TO GOP: 'AMERICAN CITIES NEED REPUBLICANS'

Johnson announced the party switch last month in a Wall Street Journal op-ed titled "America’s Cities Need Republicans, and I’m Becoming One." 

"Next spring, I will be voting in the Republican primary. When my career in elected office ends in 2027 on the inauguration of my successor as mayor, I will leave office as a Republican," Johnson wrote.

When asked about how the Black community will respond to the move, Johnson said, "I actually believe that in time they're going to start to ask themselves, 'Why are we still Democrats? We trust him. He's never let us down.'"

"I believe that this is actually going to be a beginning in Dallas of Black folks from the communities I represent for so long saying we need to give the Republican Party a look, especially today."

Since taking office in 2019, Johnson has been a vocal supporter of police as other cities, including the Texas capitol of Austin, have moved to defund police departments in the wake of the George Floyd riots. The mayor is now urging cities to abandon the "lax" leadership of Democrats and have more Republicans run at the local level to restore law and order.

"We need more Republican mayors. We can't afford to let the cities look like they look right now. From San Francisco to Chicago to Philadelphia to D.C., the news is filled every day with all this out-of-control, lawless behavior… it's a culture of lawlessness. It's lax DAs on the Democratic side and it's local leaders, mayors on the Democratic side who've just created this environment. If you look at how I've governed, it's been Republican fiscal conservative principles, pro-law enforcement, pro-public safety principles. I'm just saying that it's the kind of Republican I want to be and we need more of them."

Johnson suggested that voters need to "get past the personalities and be honest with yourself about what's important to you."

"The reality is, there's a really big gap at this point in time between who I am, what's important to me, what I'm about, and where the Democratic Party is and what's important to them and what they're about," he said.

FOX News' Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.

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