Two-term Georgia state Rep. Mesha Mainor announced Tuesday her switch from the Democratic to the Republican Party.
Mainor, who represents the 56th District in Atlanta, said she was making the move to better serve her constituents and stay true to her convictions.
She tweeted, “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.”
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
“I didn’t leave the Democrat Party,” Mainor wrote later in another social media post. “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.”
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
Former President Ronald Reagan famously said that the Democratic Party had left him when asked why he switched parties in the 1960s.
He successfully ran for governor of California in 1966 defeating an incumbent Democrat.
Mainor clearly experienced a change of heart since April when she told Axios that she would “never” switch parties.
The top-line issue for the Georgian is school choice.
Fox News reported Mainor broke Democrat ranks in March to vote for Georgia Senate Bill 233, which would have created $6,500 vouchers for students at schools performing in the bottom 25 percent in the state. Parents could use the money to send their children to private schools or for homeschooling.
GA State Representative Mesha Mainor – then a Democrat – called out her Dem colleagues in March while supporting school choice: “You don’t have to treat me so badly because I am trying to help the children in my community.”
Today, she joined the @GOP!pic.twitter.com/wwAjvxEsYI
— GOP (@GOP) July 11, 2023
She explained in a video she posted to social media Tuesday, “The Democrats at the 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. Some of the schools I represent have a 3 percent reading proficiency or children can’t do simple math,” Mainor continued.
“I’m not apologizing because my colleagues don’t like how I vote, when my community loves the fact that someone is finally sticking up for them and holding these systems accountable. Let’s be real, parents do not want their child trapped in a failing school,” she said.
I’m a sitting Democrat in the Georgia House of Representatives and the Democrat Party Establishment is looking to take me out.
I’m tired of hearing certain folks in my party chant Black Lives Matter during Election Years but are NOWHERE to be found any other year. pic.twitter.com/wuMdVBeCki
— Rep. Mesha Mainor (@MeshaMainor) May 20, 2023
Mainor told Fox, “For far too long, the Democrat Party has gotten away with using and abusing the black community.”
“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,” she added.
As for the Republicans, she has “been met with much encouragement” and noted that 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.”
Mainor is the first black woman from the Republican Party to serve in the Georgia General Assembly, Atlanta News First reported.
Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp responded to Mainor’s decision to switch to the GOP tweeting, “We welcome Representative Mainor to our party and look forward to working with her on issues for the benefit of hardworking Georgians.”
Other state GOP party leaders also welcomed her onboard.
We welcome Representative Mainor to our party and look forward to working with her on issues for the benefit of hardworking Georgians. #gapol https://t.co/EqwzY3rpQ0
— Brian Kemp (@BrianKempGA) July 11, 2023
Asked whether she fears backlash from Democrats because of her decision, Mainor responded, “The most dangerous thing to the Democrat Party is a black person with a mind of their own. So, it wouldn’t surprise me.”
Wow! What a breath of fresh air.
In April, North Carolina state Rep. Tricia Cotham, who represents a Democrat-leaning district near Charlotte, switched to the GOP giving the House Republicans a supermajority.
“The modern day Democratic has become unrecognizable to me and to so many others throughout this state and this country. The party wants to villainize anyone who has free thought, free judgment, has solutions, who wants to get to work to better our state,” Cotham said.
Hopefully, this is the beginning of an exodus from the far-left Democratic Party of today that no longer represents the ideals of liberty Americans from both sides of the political aisle have traditionally held dear.
Let freedom ring!
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
