Will Mayor Eric Johnson Be at the NRA Convention This Weekend? He Won’t Say.

You may have heard the news recently: former President Donald Trump is coming to town this weekend. He’ll be here to speak at the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) annual meeting on Saturday, May 18, at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center.

Along with Trump, such luminaries as Tactical Mia, a 9-year-old pro shooter, will make an appearance downtown over the weekend.

But will Republican Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson be there as well?

We’ve made multiple attempts to find out the answer this week, but neither he nor a rep from his office has replied to tell us whether Johnson will attend the largely conservative convention. We did confirm with an NRA spokesperson that Johnson is not officially scheduled to attend as a speaker, so there’s that at least.

The last time the NRA held its massive three-day convention in Dallas, in 2018, Johnson was a Democrat, at least on paper. But after his big GOP splash in the Wall Street Journal late last year, announcing his fealty to the Republican Party, the question as to whether Johnson will jump at the chance to court such a large portion of his new party mates, let alone snag some quality time with Trump himself, is a legitimate one.

Given the so-called “bipartisan” nature of the Dallas mayorship, Johnson didn’t have to say a word about his party switch, but he did, just after he was re-elected last year. Since then, his zeal as a convert has seemingly grown more intense. He formed the Republican Mayors Association and was subsequently quite vocal in his support for Republican candidates across the country.

But as to whether the mayor will attend the NRA event is only one of the party-specific questions we’ve asked him in the past few months. In his op-ed he stuck to rather broad generalities about why he would no longer be a Democrat. He didn’t touch on the hottest and, perhaps, most important issues that typically separate the red elephants from the blue donkeys.

We sent him a list of questions that any truly proud conservative should be itching to answer, or so we thought.

For example, we asked questions such as: Does he support Trump’s re-election bid? Is he in favor of library book bans? How does he think the border should be secured? Where does he stand on DEI on college campuses? Does he, in fact, own a red MAGA hat?

There’s little doubt that these are all vital queries, but they all went unanswered. One question we didn’t ask back then that we want to now: Where does he stand on guns these days?

In June 2022, Johnson joined a bipartisan group of Lone Star State mayors called Texas’ Big City Mayors. At the time, the group Johnson joined called for stricter gun measures in the state.

“Families are asking us how many more shootings must happen before we act,” a statement from the group of mayors wrote. “The communities of Uvalde, El Paso, Santa Fe, and Sutherland Springs deserve better. In response to mass shootings – Florida passed red flag laws, and we can do the same here in Texas.”

We’ve asked the mayor if he still feels this way when it comes to guns; alas, he hasn’t responded.

Johnson’s attendance at a marquee event so closely tied to his political affiliation and in his own city seems to make this an easy question to answer. Especially so in light of reports that indicate the NRA could receive up to $1 million in state and local money for bringing its gun show to Johnson’s city.

It has also been reported that an estimated 75,000 could attend the NRA convention this weekend.

Will the Dallas mayor be one of them?