Georgia state Rep. Mesha Mainor announced Tuesday she is switching political party affiliation – leaving Democrats to join Republicans.
“I did what I did because there are just several issues that I did not realize were as partisan as they were,” Mainor tells WSB Radio. “One being public safety, one being victim rights, the third one being education. The Democrats pretty much drew a line in the sand saying this is what we believe in, and if you don’t believe in these things, basically you are not welcome.”
Her decision to flip comes after she’d broken with Democrats on issues including private school vouchers.
Mainor represents westside Atlanta District 56. In the 2020 presidential election, 89% of the district’s voters supported Joe Biden.
“(Democrats) definitely chased me out of the party and the members know they chased me out of the party,” Mainor tells WSB, before quickly amending that statement.
“They more so isolated almost 60,000 people from a voice, and so switching allows me to uplift my community and give them a bigger voice.”
Mainor’s switch now gives Georgia Republicans a 102-78 majority in the state House.