Mayor Johnson in his Cowboy Hat Era (as seen in D Magazine)
November 15, 2023
Future historians will debate when, exactly, Eric Johnson, the mayor of Dallas, began regularly wearing a cowboy hat. It seems likely that he made the fashion choice when the Stars lost to the Golden Knights in the playoffs. On May 31, Johnson tweeted a video of himself at Wild Bill’s Western Store in the West End, where, to satisfy a mayoral bet, he bought a black felt Stetson for the mayor of Las Vegas.
Giddy-up. A week later, Johnson was wearing a traditional straw cowboy hat outside the Harry Stone Aquatic Center, giving a shoutout to the Park and Rec Department. And then came August 16, a Wednesday. For an alfresco CBS Channel 11 interview about the Dallas Police Department’s crime-reduction efforts, the mayor wore a thinner-brimmed cowboy hat that we can only hope will become the emblem of his second term. He wore it again on August 28 for an outdoor event at which he lobbied for bond money for parks. Ken Kalthoff at NBC Channel 5, on the scene, reported that it was a “park ranger hat to dramatize his commitment to improving parks.”
Anyone who has seen Ken’s Mojo Dojo Casa House could hardly blame him for the mistake.
“Ken does the best he can,” Mayor Johnson told us in an email helpfully sent by his chief of staff, “but clearly he knows nothing about haberdashery.”
The mayor confirmed that the hat is a Stetson Open Road. He said, “I’ve worn hats, exclusively Stetsons, at various times my entire adult life.” What sort of reaction has he received from constituents and co-workers to his current favorite lid? “Folks seem to dig it.”
Will he transition to felt this winter?