Cities › TX
Dallas
Mayor Eric Johnson · Republican · in office since June 17, 2019
The Executive Summary
Mayor Eric Johnson (R) has led Dallas since June 2019; on economic outcomes — the only thing this site scores for mayors — Dallas ranks No. 4 of 21 big cities. On Johnson's watch, unemployment fell 5.7% → 4% across 2021–2025. Crime, housing and schools are not in this score, and Dallas runs day-to-day through a city manager, so the record is shared — association, not causation.
| Unemployment 4% (2025) | +0.44σ · -5.9%/yr vs peers -4.09%/yr · 2021–2025 (5 pts) |
| Median household income $74,323 (2024 · constant 2024 $) | +0.36σ · +3.4%/yr vs peers +1.04%/yr · 2021–2024 (4 pts) |
| Poverty rate 13.9% (2024) | +0.68σ · -6.14%/yr vs peers -1.76%/yr · 2021–2024 (4 pts) |
| Government form | Council-manager |
Dallas uses a council-manager government, so day-to-day administration runs through an unelected city manager. Read this as the city's record, which the mayor shares.
Sources: unemployment — BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics · median household income — Census ACS 1-year, CPI-U deflated · poverty rate — Census ACS 1-year (B17001). Unemployment runs through 2025; income and poverty through 2024. The 2025 unemployment point is an eleven-month average — October 2025 was never collected during the federal shutdown — and it is included and flagged here under the same rule the state pages apply to the same statistic (one statistic, one rulebook, as of v2.6; through v2.5 city pages excluded it instead, and the changelog says so).
Scored on economic outcomes only — unemployment, real median income and poverty. Crime, housing and health are not yet included, so this is a narrower measure than a governor’s. Two denominators. The rank is out of 21 — the mayors with enough scored years to rank. 21 of 50 cities are scored, 0 of those are early reads left unranked, and 29 mayors are not yet scorable. Each σ is measured against all 49 other cities. Government form follows standard reference classifications and was not verified city by city. Methodology
The Rundown
No. 4 of 21 big-city mayors — on economics, and only economics.
Poverty rate. Better than the typical big city. 16.5% → 13.9% across 2021–2024.
Unemployment. Better than the typical big city. 5.7% → 4% across 2021–2025.
Median household income. Worse than the typical big city. $67,138 → $74,323 across 2021–2024.
How this is scored: 60% is where Dallas stands against the other 49 largest cities, 40% is which way it moved on Mayor Johnson's watch — the same rule governors get. It covers 3 economic outcomes only: crime, housing and schools are not in this grade, so it is narrower than a governor's. Dallas also runs day-to-day through an unelected city manager, so this record is shared, not the mayor's alone.
Public safety, monthly — the city’s own record
Hate/bias-crime incidents reported by the Dallas Police Department incident feed via Dallas OpenData (dataset qv6i-rri7, hate-flagged incidents), counted by the city’s own published bias motives and compared same months only — January–June of each year, because the record currently runs through June 2026. Counts are small and reporting-sensitive; they are shown in both directions, never scored, and never part of Johnson’s grade or any other. This module exists for every city whose government publishes a qualifying official feed — no feed, no module, no inferred number.
| Bias motive | Jan–Jun 2023 | Jan–Jun 2024 | Jan–Jun 2025 | Jan–Jun 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All bias motives | 24 | 12 | 4 | 8 |
| Motive not specified in the feed | 11 | 6 | 1 | 7 |
| All other motives | 13 | 6 | 3 | 1 |
Source: Dallas Police Department incident feed via Dallas OpenData (dataset qv6i-rri7, hate-flagged incidents), data through June 2026. 1 record recorded after that month (a partial current month, or mis-dated rows) is excluded from the series — an exclusion counted here rather than made silently. An incident count is a report to the police, not a conviction, and a change in counts can reflect reporting as well as incidence — the city’s own caveats apply.
Dallas sits in TX, whose governor Greg Abbott holds a scored statewide record (No. 22 of 29). State outcomes are not the mayor’s grade — a city is not a state — but they’re the nearest verified context today.