A Georgia lawmaker representing the city of Atlanta announced that she would leave the Democrat Party.
State Rep. Mesha Mainor, who represents Georgia’s 56th District, announced on Tuesday that she has decided to switch her party affiliation from Democrat to Republican.
Mainor, who has represented the blue district since Jan. 2021, tweeted that her switch was not for political purposes, but was instead “a MORAL one.”
“I will NEVER apologize for being a black woman with a mind of my own,” the representative wrote.
Earlier this year, Mainor bucked Democrats and supported a school choice bill that would have created $ 6,500 vouchers for students in schools performing in the bottom quarter of the state.
The bill would also allocate funds to pay for private school tuition and homeschooling expenses for underprivileged kids.
This, along with her advocacy against defunding the police, led to Democrats crucifying and abandoning Mainor.
“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 explained to Fox News Digital. “They crucified me.”
She continued, “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 added that at one point, several House Democrats began offering $1,000 checks to anyone who ran against her.
“Members of the Democrat Party have publicly slandered me in every way imaginable,” Mainor said at a press conference at the Georgia Capitol.
“If it’s not your values to support kids in schools where only 3 percent can read, I don’t have the same values.”
Mainor also told Fox News Digital that politicians have “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,” said Mainor.
She added, “We’ll send $1,000,000 to the border for immigrant services. But black communities, not even a shout-out. I’m sorry, I don’t agree with this.”
Mainor also explained that have “gotten away with using and abusing the black community” for far too long and that she feels humbled to have support from a party that does not “find fault in a black woman having a mind of her own.”
“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?” she asked Fox News Digital.
Mainor tweeted that she “didn’t leave the Democrat Party,” but that “The Democrat Party left ME when it embraced left-wing radicalism, lawlessness, and put the interests of illegal aliens over the interests of Americans.”
Following her party switch, Mainor said she will continue to focus on fighting for quality education for constituents while expanding the Republicans’ majority for the state House in Georgia.
Her move will now give Republicans a 102-78 majority in the state House.
Many other former Democrats, along with Mainor, have also switched political affiliations due to their party’s drastic push to the left in recent years.
In 2021, former state Rep. Vernon Jones in Georgia switched affiliations from Democrat to Republican. Another Democrat from North Carolina, state Rep. Tricia Cotham, switched to the GOP, giving Republicans a veto-proof majority against the state’s Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper.
Nationally, New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew, former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, and Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema left the Democrat Party after feeling abandoned by its increasingly far-left inhabitants.
Van Drew joined the Republican Party, while Gabbard and Sinema became registered independents.