Mesha Mainor Reflects on Her Brave Journey to the GOP — and Her Bright FutureBY CHRIS QUEEN
AUGUST 22, 2023
You might remember the story of Georgia State Rep. Mesha Mainor (R-56th district), a Democrat who switched to the GOP earlier this summer. It was a brave move for a public servant who represents an eclectic yet still urban Atlanta district.
When I saw Mainor at a distance at Erick Erickson’s Gathering over the weekend, I knew I wanted to talk to her, to find out how her work in the General Assembly had changed since she switched parties, how her constituents reacted, and what her future looks like. We didn’t cross paths until late in the afternoon on the second day, and she graciously agreed to sit down with me for a quick conversation.
Georgia’s 56th House District covers a wide swath of Atlanta, from Midtown Atlanta north to the area around the trendy shopping district Atlantic Station to the Georgia Tech campus, and then it curves to the southwest to include the Atlanta University Center complex. It’s a large and diverse district that Mainor gladly serves.
I asked her about her background, and Mainor told me that she was a “Grady baby,” born in Atlanta’s massive Grady Memorial Hospital, but her family roots go back to farmers in Central Georgia’s Dooly County. Some of her family members still farm over 1,000 acres in the middle of the state.
The truncated narrative about Mainor’s party switch is that she changed parties because of the state’s school choice bill in the last session, but the truth is that this summer was part of a long journey that begins with her family’s agricultural roots.
“The very first deal that I said ‘no’ to that the Dems wanted me to say ‘yes’ to was a bill about chicken poop in agriculture,” she told me. “So that was the start of trouble for me. And you know, here we are. Almost four years later, on July 11. I decided to switch parties.”
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Source:
https://pjmedia.com/columns/chris-queen/2023/08/22/mesha-mainor-reflects-on-her-brave-journey-to-the-gop-and-her-bright-future-n1721071
