A Democrat hailing from the state of Georgia has left her colleagues in the party steaming mad after announcing that she would be switching over to the Republican Party and supported a GOP-led school choice bill, after she claims they “crucified” and “abandoned” her.
There have been quite a few Democrats leaving the party and either going independent or Republican over the last several months, a trend that is no doubt leaving many in the Democratic Party concerned about the prospects of winning elections, such as Kirsten Sinema in Arizona.
Mesha Mainor, who represents District 56 in Georgia’s House of Representatives, announced just before noon on Tuesday that she would be saying “adios” to the Democratic Party and moseying on over to the GOP, according to a report from the Conservative Brief.
“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,” Mainor said during an interview with Fox News.
“For far too long, the Democrat Party has gotten away with using and abusing the black community,” she added. “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.”
However, while Mainor is switching parties, that does not mean she is pledging absolute loyalty to the GOP and basically opposing anything from her former party. In fact, the state congresswoman said she would continue to try and work across the political aisle, which is something she has always done, going on to say she has “never hesitated to work across the aisle to deliver results for my community and the people I was elected to represent. And that won’t change.”
She then shared that her switch has “been met with much encouragement” and that she feels 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.”
When Fox asked Mainor if she thought she would receive any sort of pushback from Democrats, she 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.”
Mainor explained that her two top priorities would now be to focus on education and to help expand the Republican Party majority in the state legislature. “Education and the importance of school choice has been – and will continue to be – a key focus of mine,” she said during the interview 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 said.
In the month of May, Mainor posted a video on social media where she slammed her Democratic Party colleagues for turning on her after she started to advocate for the expansion of 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,” the congresswoman stated at the time. “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.”
Mainor justified her decision by stating that some schools located in her district have a reading proficiency of three percent, noting many students are unable to solve basic math problems.
“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 remarked. “I’m not apologizing because my colleagues don’t like how I vote.”
Watch her here:
Featured image is a screenshot taken from the embedded YouTube video.
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