CNN
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A Georgia congresswoman who represents part of Atlanta in the state House of Representatives switched her party affiliation to the Republican this week after repeatedly breaking with her old party on several key votes this session.
State Rep. Mesha Mainor announced she was leaving the Democratic Party for the Republican Party at a news conference Tuesday.
The 56th District is a Democratic stronghold covering a swath of Fulton County that stretches from parts of west Atlanta to downtown. major he won his last primaries against two other Democrats with 65% of the vote and ran unopposed in the 2020 and 2022 general elections. President Joe Biden won Fulton County with more than 70% of the vote in 2020.
Shortly after her press conference, she he tweeted, “I represent a blue district in the city of Atlanta, so this was not a political decision for me. It was a MORAL. I will NEVER apologize for being a black woman with a mind of my own.”
Democrats called the flip a betrayal, pointing to the deep blue district Mainor was elected to represent.
Republicans, including Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, sent tweets welcoming her to the GOP, with several interviews she did on Fox News shortly after the announcement. Mainor was also welcomed into the GOP in social networks from Tricia Cotham, a North Carolina state representative from a blue district who switched from Democrat to Republican earlier this year.
Major, a two-term member, had been criticized by members of the Democratic Party this session after voting with Republicans on a number of issues, including police budgets and one monitoring commission for prosecutors.
She was the only Democrat to vote a failed invoice on private school vouchers, which a then-fellow Atlanta Democrat, state Sen. Josh McLaurin, pushed tweet, “All I need is a name,” with a photo of a blank $1,000 check for a primary challenger in the Mainer district.
“Harassment and intimidation are much bigger than three votes,” Mainor, surrounded by a handful of supporters and the state GOP chairman, said in her announcement. “It’s about the fear, the fear of an outsider coming to the capital working for the people he came here to serve.”
“Rep. Mesha Mainor’s switch to the GOP is a stinging betrayal of his constituents, who elected a Democrat to represent them in the state legislature,” said U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, who chairs the Democratic Party of l state, in a statement. “House District 56 deserves a representative who will do the job they were elected to do, including fighting for high-quality public education. Georgia Democrats look forward to electing a strong Democrat next year in HD 56 who will serve to the people, not to personal political ambitions.”
The change gives Republicans a 102-78 majority in the Georgia House. It also makes Mainor the only black Republican currently serving in the Georgia Legislature and the first black Republican woman to ever serve in the state House, according to the House GOP caucus.
The last party switch in the Georgia state legislature occurred in 2021, when Vernon Jones, a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump, switched from Democrat to Republican near the end of his term in the House of the state
