In light of the fact that Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson switched to the Republican Party in the previous year, a petition to remove Johnson from office is being circulated by a candidate who has run for the Dallas City Council three times before.
On Tuesday, Davante Peters, a local activist and proprietor of a wellness business in Dallas, announced that he has collected approximately 1,100 signatures in support of recalling Johnson. Peters stated in an interview with The Texas Tribune that Johnson’s decision to switch his political party affiliation and his absence from multiple meetings of the City Council in the previous year caused him to question the mayor’s dedication to his post.
Peters submitted his petition on Friday, according to the confirmation provided by Bilierae Johnson, the City Secretary of Dallas, to The Dallas Morning News. Peters stated that in order for the petition to reach the City Council of Dallas, which is the body that has the authority to decide whether or not to organize a mayoral recall election, he must acquire more than 103,000 signatures from registered voters by the 5th of March.
“We regular people wouldn’t have a job if we didn’t go to work,” Peters added. “We wouldn’t have anywhere to go.” “In my opinion, the leadership of our organization ought to be held to the same standard.”
It is required under the city charter of Dallas that the petition be signed by fifteen percent of the registered voters who were eligible to vote in the most recent general election held in the city within sixty days in order for the process to proceed. In the event that Peters reaches that threshold and the secretary of the city determines that all signatures are legitimate, the City Council has the option of putting the recall motion to a vote.
Voters in Dallas do not obtain information regarding the political party affiliation of candidates when they cast their ballots because the mayoral office and all positions on the City Council are nonpartisan. In September, Johnson made the statement that he would be transferring to the Republican Party. However, this announcement provoked several voters to express their disapproval. With the shift of the mayor, Dallas, which had been a reliably Democratic city, became the largest city in the US to have a Republican mayor.
Kardal Coleman, who is the chair of the Dallas County Democratic Party, initiated an online petition in the previous year, which demanded that the two-term mayor, who had been a Democrat for a very long time, step down from politics. With almost 2,300 signatures as of Tuesday, it has been signed.
With regard to the online petition, Peters expressed his opinion that it was a “symbolic effort.” The recall petition that he submitted to the secretary of the city is the first one that has been submitted against a member of the Dallas City Council since an unsuccessful attempt to remove a council member in 2017.
