ATL Standard

Georgia State Rep. Mesha Mainor (D-56) refuses to apologize to fellow Democrats for her vote to support school choice.

According to the Daily Mail, Mainor took to Twitter to criticize the outrage of fellow Democratic lawmakers because she voted to support school choice for parents and students over voting for the teachers’ union as the rest of her party did. Mainor justified her decision by citing failing schools in her district that have reading proficiency rates as low as 3% and with many students unable to do even basic math. She also criticized fellow Democrats for allocating $1 million for immigrant services at the border while neglecting the needs of minorities in the state.

"I wasn’t elected to put party first. I was elected to put AMERICA first. I will ALWAYS support school choice. I will NEVER be owned by a political party," Mainor wrote in a May 21 Twitter post. "If that makes those in my party mad, they can kick rocks."

Mainor shared a video stating that she is now in the cross hairs of Democrats for her vote and defended herself by saying “I represent a solidly blue and highly diverse district. I have never hesitated and will never hesitate to vote for the best interest of the communities I represent, over party politics. I support school choice, parent rights and opportunities for children to thrive, especially those that are marginalized and tend to fail in school.”

“Let's be real. Parents do not want their child trapped in a failing school,” Mainor added. “If you listen to the people working so hard to push me out of office, you'd think I actually did something wrong. But in reality they're [fellow democrats] upset they didn't do what they demanded,” Mainor said, even claiming that some fellow party members are giving out $1000 checks to anyone willing to run against her. She also criticized their continual shouts of Black Lives Matter and their complete lack of action to support the poor black neighborhoods in these failing school districts. “I’m not apologizing because my colleagues don’t like how I vote, when my community loves the fact that someone is finally sticking up for them and holding these systems accountable.”