Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson took a victory lap on Wednesday after a recall petition seeking his ouster failed to meet a key deadline the day before.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, at least two petitions were circulated aimed at unseating Johnson after the mayor declared he was joining the Republican Party — one by activist Davante Peters and another by the Dallas County Democratic Party.
“This was a big, fat nothing-burger cooked up by self-promoting partisan opportunists and served up by some click-hungry members of our local media whose breathless ‘reporting’ on the subject too often resembled an endorsement of this ridiculous recall effort,” said Johnson, according to a press release by Johnson for Dallas.
The failed attempts to recall Johnson came amid calls from Democrats who alleged that voters were misled in the last mayoral election since he only made his party switch public after handily winning re-election with 98.7% of the vote, even though mayoral elections in Dallas are non-partisan.
“My attendance was never truly the issue, and my publicly available attendance record proves it. … This never even resembled a legitimate effort, and it was a clear waste of time, energy, and ink,” Johnson said. “This was a nakedly partisan game played by leftists spinning a phony narrative. In the end, far more words were written about this abject failure than there were lawful signatures gathered.”
Fewer than 3,000 people signed the Dallas County Democratic Party’s online petition, and Peters’ petition — which required more than 103,000 signatures — was not turned in on time per official City recall protocols.
“Dallas voters are frustrated, they feel deceived and feel they have been defrauded,” Dallas County Democratic Party chair Kardal Coleman told The Dallas Morning News in September 2023. “We’re creating a space for Dallas voters to be heard.”
Johnson made political waves last year when he announced he was joining the Republican Party because of the purported lack of fiscal responsibility and attention to public safety being exhibited by Democratic officials all over the country, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
“I don’t believe I can stay on the sidelines any longer,” the mayor said at the time. “I have always tried to be honest and say what I think is right for my city. 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.”
