When Democratic state Rep. Mesha Mainor defected from her party on Tuesday to become a Republican, she didn’t give herself an easier path to reelection in her Atlanta-based House district, which President Joe Biden carried with roughly 90% of the vote in 2020. It’s such an uphill slog that Mainor could choose not to stand for another term at all.
But in deciding to change parties, Mainor joined a long line of party-switchers in Georgia, some of whom went on to great heights as a massive realignment changed the face of state politics.
Tops on that list were former GOP governors Nathan Deal and Sonny Perdue, who were both prominent rural Democrats as Republicans began to chip away at decades of one-party Democratic rule in Georgia in the 1990s. They both flipped parties, too.
Miguel Martinez/AJC
Miguel Martinez/AJC
The trend accelerated in the early 2000s when Perdue became the state’s first Republican governor since Reconstruction and the GOP took control of both chambers of the Legislature. As rural Democratic lawmakers sought more power and influence — and a clearer path to victory — becoming Republicans was their answer.
State Sens. Rooney Bowen, Don Cheeks, Jack Hill and Dan Lee were among the party-switchers representing territories that were fast shifting to the GOP. Some of the House defectors then remain powerbrokers today, including state Reps. Gerald Greene, Butch Parrish and Alan Powell.
The stream of party-switchers has slowed, with a few exceptions.
In 2007, state Rep. Mike Jacobs, a Brookhaven Democrat switched parties as his district morphed into one of the state’s most competitive battlegrounds, but continued to carve out a progressive agenda. He even killed a “religious liberty” measure in 2015, which Deal rewarded him for by tapping him to a DeKalb judicial seat six weeks later, where he remains.
Jason Getz/AJC
Jason Getz/AJC
In 2011, Democratic third-term Athens Rep. Doug McKillip became a Republican less than a month after he was elected chairman of the House Democratic caucus. He was defeated in the 2012 GOP primary.
The strangest scenario has involved Vernon Jones, a once-Democratic legislator from a deep-blue slice of DeKalb who was the county’s former chief executive.
A pariah to some of his colleagues from the start, Jones endorsed Donald Trump in April 2020 — and was promptly disowned by fellow Democrats.
Even so, he didn’t switch parties until Jan. 6, 2021, the same day as the violent pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol. He later ran a failed campaign for an open U.S. House seat after briefly attempting to challenge Gov. Brian Kemp in the GOP primary.
To bring it full circle, Jones has been one of Mainor’s loudest cheerleaders this week, praising her as “another black independent thinker” to bolt to the GOP. “I knew I wasn’t alone,” he said on social media.
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Arvin Temkar/AJC
Arvin Temkar/AJC
MORE MAINOR. While most Republicans welcomed state Rep. Mesha Mainor with open arms, there were some voices — both private and public — who grumbled that she would eventually cost conservatives a vote on causes like school vouchers, which Mainor supported over Democratic objections.
“Hate to be the turd in the punchbowl, but this is bad for school choice,” said veteran GOP strategist Chip Lake. “She can’t win as a Republican in that district, and what incentive would a Democrat have now to support any meaningful legislation on parental choice?”
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Arvin Temkar/AJC
Arvin Temkar/AJC
LISTEN UP. The grand jurors likely to decide former President Donald Trump’s legal fate in Georgia were selected Tuesday. The AJC’s Jeremy Redmon tells us about the scene at the Fulton County Courthouse in today’s episode of the Politically Georgia podcast.
We’re also taking a deep dive on state Rep. Mesha Mainor’s decision to switch political parties, Gov. Brian Kemp’s $5 million cash haul and more.
Listen at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts.
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DEFENDING MTG. Her alliance with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is one of the reasons why U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene may or may not have been booted from the House Freedom Caucus. (She told reporters the caucus still hasn’t told her she’s out.)
Kenny Holston/The New York Times
Kenny Holston/The New York Times
Now, McCarthy is defending Greene from any allegations she has abandoned her conservative base. He told a reporter for Axios on Tuesday that he supports the Rome Republican “very strongly.”
“I think Marjorie Taylor Greene is one of the best members we have,” McCarthy told the reporter. “I think she’s one of the most conservative members and one of the strongest legislators.”
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ANTISEMITISM BILL. One of the most curious aspects of Republican state Sen. Ed Setzler’s commentary in the Marietta Daily Journal last week explaining his opposition to a measure to combat antisemitism was his mention of a “75-minute town hall meeting” with a rabbi and members of Atlanta’s oldest synagogue that helped him hash out his position.
We had never heard about such a town meeting at The Temple, the city’s oldest Jewish congregation, and neither had Jewish community advocates and attorneys. As it turns out, neither had the leaders of the Temple.
Miguel Martinez/AJC
Miguel Martinez/AJC
Here’s what Peter Berg, the congregation’s senior rabbi, wrote in his own commentary in the MDJ in response to Setzler’s:
“The Op-Ed by State Senator Ed Setzler mischaracterizes the conversation that took place with one of our rabbis. To be clear, The Temple wholeheartedly supports HB30 including the use of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism (Jew Hatred) as written. Hard stop. It is essential that we pass HB30 as written.”
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Bob Andres / AJC
Bob Andres / AJC
WE’RE NUMBER FOUR! Gov. Brian Kemp has followed in the footsteps of Gov. Nathan Deal by touting Georgia’s frequent ranking by “Site Selection” magazine as “the number one state to do business.”
But Georgia was ranked fourth on the list that CNBC released Tuesday, trailing fellow Southern states North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia for the title of “best state to do business.”
While Georgia topped all states in the infrastructure category, it landed way down in 39th place for “life, health, and inclusion.”
The NBC-owned business channel’s criteria change from year-to-year, as do the winners.
Way back in 2015, it was headline news when Georgia went from first to fifth in the network’s annual rankings of the top states for business. Then-Gov. Nathan Deal had been citing the rankings every chance he got on the campaign trail, and a year earlier took a break during a trade mission in Israel to tout the latest award.
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OVER IT? Major League Baseball famously yanked the All-Star Game from Atlanta in 2021 over the state’s new election law. Now the league may be open to returning the showcase game to Truist Park.
“Atlanta is in the mix of clubs for the ’25 All-Star game,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said at a question-and-answer session with reporters in Seattle. “I’m not prepared to go past that right now.”
Two years after losing the game — and the economic impact it would bring — state Republicans are still steamed. Last year, Republicans pointedly chose a diner within a short drive from Truist Park to promote their electoral measures. This week, they were back for a hearing on “election integrity,” and said they’d chosen Atlanta for the event specifically to highlight the MLB’s decision to yank the game here two years ago.
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Courtesy photo
Courtesy photo
AG ENFORCER. Being Agriculture Commissioner isn’t all farm tours and pig shows. Our colleague Ligaya Figueras has the details on newly elected Commissioner Tyler Harper’s move to recreate the Georgia Department of Agriculture’s law enforcement division, starting with hiring Harlan Proveaux, the former deputy director Homeland Security for Georgia, to run it.
“There's a variety of things that we can be involved in, not only from protecting the food supply and from a Homeland Security perspective, but also labor trafficking and human trafficking," Harper said.
Trafficking of foreign farmworkers in Georgia became national news in late 2021 when a wide-reaching federal investigation, known as Operation Blooming Onion, uncovered a modern-day slavery ring that involved bringing people from Central America to the U.S. and forcing them to labor in horrific conditions on Georgia farms.
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Christina Matacotta for the AJC
Christina Matacotta for the AJC
TODAY IN WASHINGTON:
- The U.S. House will begin debate on the National Defense Authorization Act, with a final vote expected on Friday.
- The Senate is in session and focused on confirmations.
- President Joe Biden, in Lithuania for a NATO summit, will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy then deliver a speech on American democracy and international affairs.
- U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams and other House Democrats will host a virtual news conference on legislation to shield borrowers from credit score demerits if they have defaulted on student loans.
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Nathan Posner for the AJC
Nathan Posner for the AJC
BE PREPARED. U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath has cut a public service announcement on severe storms and weather in conjunction with the Atlanta-based Weather Channel.
McBath appears with meteorologist Jim Cantore to encourage Georgians to have a plan in case of severe weather. Record high heat and flooding have hit cities across the nation this summer.
The PSA will run on the channel throughout the summer.
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DOG OF THE DAY. We’re serving up a double dose of Daisies this week. After Daisy the Tennessee bulldog yesterday, it’s time to meet Daisy Cox, the Labrador retriever puppy from Middle Georgia taking the internet by storm.
Courtesy photo
Courtesy photo
Daisy lives in Milledgeville with her brand new person, Georgia College and State University President Cathy Cox, who recently brought Daisy home to her new “residence hall.” When Cox posted photos and a video of the eight-week-old pup to her Instagram account @gcsupresident, Daisy quickly got more than 1,000 “likes.”
We’re told the viral college campus sensation also passed her first exam at the vet with flying colors. And for that, we are declaring her our A+ Dog of the Day.
Send us your dogs of any political persuasion and cats on a cat-by-cat basis to patricia.murphy@ajc.com, or DM us on Twitter @MurphyAJC.
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AS ALWAYS, Jolt readers are some of our favorite tipsters. Send your best scoop, gossip and insider info to patricia.murphy@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com and greg.bluestein@ajc.com.
