GA state rep leaves Democrats and joins Republican Party

 Although I spent a number of years in ATL at school at Morehouse College, I didn't always keep up with ATL politics. For one thing Atlanta is a solidly Democrat city, just like Chicago which they could be comparable in a number of ways.

Now having seen this story through Tim Pool allow me to delve into this. A member of the Georgia House of Representatives has switched parties from Democrat to Republican. I'm going to share with you a local article from a TV station because well those on the right will be all over this and view this as a victory.

A Georgia state legislator from Atlanta switched to the Republican Party on Tuesday, after being at odds with Democrats for reasons including her support for school vouchers and disciplining prosecutors.

"Today I stand here to say that I have decided to join the Republican Party of Georgia," said Rep. Mesha Mainor at a news conference Tuesday. "I supported children and family over the teachers union. I supported the Republican position not to defund the police."

Mainor becomes the only Black member of the GOP among Georgia’s 236 state lawmakers, and the first Black Republican woman to ever serve in the Georgia General Assembly. Mainor’s defection gives Republicans a 102-78 edge in the House.

Mainor said legislative Democrats drove her out of the party for breaking party orthodoxy, claiming at a Tuesday news conference outside the Georgia Capitol that they had "relentlessly tried to sabotage every single thing that I have done for District 56" and "publicly slandered me in every way imaginable."

This article mentions former GA legislator Vernon Jones who spoke in the 2020 GOP Convention and formally switched to the Republican party in 2021.

As a person who continues to straddle the fence on which party, I would more or less laud State Rep. Mainor for standing by her convictions. Unfortunately I recognize that there are consequence for this. If her district is solidly Democrat then she'll likely lose her seat which she won in 2020 a very volatile social and political year in my most recent memory.

In this case they can't primary her, if she runs to retain her seat she'll last through the general election and then could lose to the Democrat nominee for her seat. I would hope she could parlay this into other political ambitions if she may well chose not to remain in the Georgia General Assembly.

Regardless this is not something you see everyday. A Black Democrat switching parties to join the Republican Party. So this caught my attention for sure my mind might go to "this is a growing trend". It could be or perhaps the discussion as I see in a clip through Timcast IRL is that you might not see Republicans be so quick to join Dems as Dems might join the GOP.