Former Democratic state Rep. Mesha Mainor, who left the party in 2023, announced her campaign as a Republican for Georgia state school superintendent.
Mainor left the Democratic Party over disagreements with its stance on taxpayer-funded school vouchers for private schools. The school voucher bill passed with her support when she joined the Republican Party.
“I’m running to give parents a voice, protect our children, and make Georgia the number one place to educate a child no matter where the child lives,” Mainor said in a statement announcing her campaign. “Excellence in Georgia’s classrooms will no longer be a vision. Together with the phenomenal teachers of Georgia in every classroom, school administrators, all school staff, and policy leaders — Georgia will be the number one state to live, work, and educate.”
After Mainor switched parties to support school vouchers, she lost her primary in her Democratic-leaning district in the 2024 election, having only received 16% of the vote.
Mainor and others in support of school vouchers have argued that they can help children in low-performing districts attain a better education that would be otherwise inaccessible. Opponents of school vouchers have said the program shuffles taxpayer money into private institutions with little oversight or quality control. Some parents in states with school voucher programs have misused the money.
Mainor argued that Republican primary voters should trust her to install a conservative agenda despite her previously being a Democratic lawmaker because she is similar to a religious convert.
“It’s those new Christians that often have more faith than old Christians,” she told the Georgia Recorder. “So to say that I just switched parties, what it means is that I understand what the value systems are of the Republican Party, and that’s why I made such a dramatic switch.”
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“It was not easy to make the switch,” she continued. “I was ridiculed. I had racist attacks put on me. I mean, if you look back at my social media after I switched parties, that was a very trying and traumatic time for me, but I stood strong because I was convicted in why I was changing parties.”
Three-term incumbent state superintendent Richard Woods already announced his reelection campaign. Three other Republican candidates are also mounting primary challenges to Woods. No Democrat has announced a campaign yet.