Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson will speak at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week, along with other Texas Republican leaders.
Johnson’s speech at the convention will come less than one year after he left the Democratic Party to become a Republican. Other RNC speakers include Gov. Greg Abbott and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).
Johnson quickly emerged as a rising star in the Republican Party after the switch. He serves as the chairman and president of the newly founded Republican Mayors Association, which met in person for the first time this year in Dallas, as previously reported by DX.
The Dallas mayor said Republicans need to allocate more resources towards campaigns in cities that focus on law and order.
“We have to be mayors who prioritize law and order and public safety,” Johnson previously told DX. “We saw in the wake of the George Floyd incident what it looks like if you don’t have that commitment. To me, the Republican Party has always been the more trusted party on those issues.”
Dallas is the country’s only top ten largest city with a Republican mayor. Only 25 of the top 100 cities have GOP mayors, according to Ballotpedia.
Former President Donald Trump is expected to announce his running mate at the convention on Monday. He will also officially become the Republican nominee for president.
The Secret Service said it planned its security measures for the RNC over the past 18 months and did not plan to adopt additional measures in response to the attempted assassination against Trump over the weekend, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
“We’re not anticipating any changes to our operational security plans for this event,” Audrey Gibson-Cicchino, the RNC convention coordinator for the Secret Service, said.
“This is a national special security event — that is the highest level security designation that the federal government can determine,” she continued. “So we are confident in the security plans for this event. We’re ready to go. It’s been an 18-month process.”
Trump flew to Milwaukee on Sunday for the RNC less than 24 hours after he was allegedly shot in the ear by Thomas Matthews Crooks. The shooter killed one attendee, and two others were severely injured, according to law enforcement.