(Headline USA) A Georgia Democrat who broke with her party earlier this year over its opposition to school choice legislation officially joined the GOP this week, accusing the Democratic Party of leaving her.
Mesha Mainor, a state representative who represents Georgia’s deep blue 56th district, said she plans to switch her party registration to Republican because of the bullying she has faced from her Democrat colleagues in recent weeks.
I didn’t leave the Democrat Party.
The Democrat Party left ME when it embraced left-wing radicalism, lawlessness, and put the interests of illegal aliens over the interest of Americans.
I have nothing to apologize for.
— Rep. Mesha Mainor (@MeshaMainor) July 11, 2023
“When I decided to stand up on behalf of disadvantaged children in support of school choice, my Democrat colleagues didn’t stand by me,” Mainor told Fox News. “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.”
My name is Rep. Meisha Mainor and today I made the decision to leave the Democrat Party.
I represent a blue district in the city of Atlanta so this wasn’t a political decision for me. It was a a MORAL one.
I will NEVER apologize for being a black woman with a mind of my own. pic.twitter.com/q3snDGejCN
— Rep. Mesha Mainor (@MeshaMainor) July 11, 2023
Mainor was the only state Democrat to vote for a bill in May that would have created $6,500 vouchers for students in poor-performing public school districts. She argued the bill would have primarily benefited her constituents: low-income minority families who can’t afford to send their children to better private schools.
Democrats’ opposition to the bill is a symptom of the party’s disdain for black Americans, Mainor said.
“For far too long, the Democrat Party has gotten away with using and abusing the black community,” she said. “For decades, the Democrat Party has received the support of more than 90% 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.”
Mainor said she expects blowback from her Democrat colleagues, but that she has also “been met with much encouragement” from Republicans.
It’s “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,” she said.
