After receiving a barrage of vitriol, a Georgia Democrat who recently supported a GOP-led school choice bill outraged members of her party and declared she was joining the GOP.
“Mesha Mainor – a Democrat who has represented District 56 in the Georgia state House since January 2021 – will announce shortly before noon Tuesday that she will switch her party registration to Republican,” Fox News exclusively confirmed.
She told the network: “When I decided to stand up on behalf of disadvantaged children in support of school choice, my Democrat colleagues didn’t stand by me. They crucified me. When I decided to stand up in support of safe communities and refused to support efforts to defund the police, they didn’t back me. They abandoned me.”
“For far too long, the Democrat Party has gotten away with using and abusing the black community,” she noted further. “For decades, the Democrat Party has received the support of more than 90 percent of the black community. And what do we have to show for it? I represent a solidly blue district in the city of Atlanta. This isn’t a political decision for me. It’s a moral one.”
By stating that she has “never hesitated to work across the aisle to deliver results for my community and the people I was elected to represent,” Mainor also made it clear that she will keep working with Republicans after joining them. And nothing will alter that.
With regard to her decision to switch parties, Mainor said she has “been met with much encouragement” and that it is “humbling to be embraced – for the first time in a long time – by individuals who don’t find fault in a black woman having a mind of her own and be willing to buck the party line.”
When asked if she expects opposition from Democrats, she said: “The most dangerous thing to the Democrat Party is a black person with a mind of their own. So, it wouldn’t surprise me.”
She clarified that after joining the GOP, her top priorities would be to maintain her emphasis on education and increase the GOP’s dominance of the state legislature.
“Education and the importance of school choice has been – and will continue to be – a key focus of mine,” she told Fox News. “But outside of education, I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Georgia General Assembly to tackle the most pressing issues facing our state and to help grow the Republican Party, helping us not focus not just on preaching to the choir but growing the congregation.”
She lambasted Democrats in a social media video she shared in May for abandoning her as she started pushing for increased school choice.
“I support school choice, parent rights and opportunities for children to thrive, especially those that are marginalized and tend to fail in school,” she said then. “The Democrats at the [Georgia State] Capitol took a hard position and demanded every Democrat vote against children and for the teachers union. I voted yes for parents and yes for children not failing schools.”
She used the fact that only 3% of pupils at some schools in her district are proficient readers and that many others struggle to even complete simple math problems to support her choice.
“I have a few colleagues upset with me to the point where they are giving away $1,000 checks to anyone that will run against me,” Mainor continued. “I’m not apologizing because my colleagues don’t like how I vote.”
At the time, she said that parents were becoming more and more irate with Democrats for “put the teachers union and donors ahead of their constituents.”
“It’s ironic. I’ll say every election year, I hear ‘Black Lives Matter.’ But do they? I see every other minority being prioritized except black children living in poverty that can’t read,” Mainor argued then.
The post Dem Flees Party, Runs to GOP After Being ‘Crucified’ and ‘Abandoned’ appeared first on The Republic Brief.
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